The Geography of Alaska 



215 



Philippines. In spite of great difficulties 

 and hardships, he ascended Copper River , 

 crossed to the Tanana, and, following 

 that stream to its mouth, extended his 

 explorations for some 300 miles up the 

 Koyukuk. During the years 1884 and 

 1885 Lieut. George M. Stoney,U.S.N., 

 made extensive explorations in the 

 drainage basins of the rivers tributary 

 to Kotzebue Sound. Lieut. W. L- How- 

 ard, a member of this party, during the 

 winter of 1886 crossed the region lying 

 between the headwaters of the Kobuk 

 and the Arctic Ocean. Meanwhile, in 

 1884, Lieut. John C. Cantwell and other 

 officers of the Revenue Marine Service 

 also made explorations in the Kotzebue 

 Sound region. 



The pioneer traders and prospectors 

 have done much toward the exploration 

 of Alaska, though the results of their 

 many hazardous journeys have not al- 

 ways been available to the public. The 

 first of these frontiersmen , who were trad- 

 ers rather than prospectors, came into the 

 Yukon Basin via the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany's routes from the valley of Mac- 

 kenzie, probably early in the seventies. 

 During the succeeding two decades they 

 established trading posts at various 

 points on the Yukon. A small steamer 

 made one trip up the Yukon each sum- 

 mer, for the purpose of supplying these 

 traders, to take the furs to St Michaels, 

 whence the}' were shipped to San Fran- 

 cisco. There are few records of the ex- 

 plorations of these pioneers, but we know 

 that Frank Densmore explored the 

 Kuskokwim, Arthur Harper the Lower 

 White and Lower Tanana, Jack Mc- 

 Questen the Koyukuk, and Jack Dalton 

 the White and Alsek basins. The 

 knowledge these men obtained through 

 their own efforts and by their intercourse 

 with natives was in course of time em- 

 bodied in the maps of the Alaskan re- 

 gion; and when the prospectors entered 

 the region, about 1885, this information 

 was of great use to them. 



In 1889 the international boundary 



was located on the Porcupine and Yukon 

 rivers by J. E. Turner and J. E. Mc- 

 Grath, of the Coast Survey, and was the 

 first geodetic work done in the interior. 

 Turner, in connection with this survey, 

 led an expedition from his winter camp 

 on the Porcupine along the 141st me- 

 ridian to the Arctic Ocean. 



Lieutenant Schwatka and Dr C.Wil- 

 lard Hayes, in 1891, made a journey 

 from Fort Selkirk to the head of the 

 White, and crossing to the Copper, fol- 

 lowed the stream to its mouth. The 

 same year E. J. Glave, one of Stanley's 

 men, who lost his life in the Congo 

 Basin, and Jack Dalton made their way 

 westward from Pyramid Harbor to 

 Kluane Lake. This expedition was im- 

 portant in that it was the first on which 

 pack animals were used in Alaska. 



The discovery of gold on the Yukon 

 in 1886 resulted in the region gradu- 

 ally becoming better known, largely 

 through the efforts of prospectors. At 

 first the approach to the new gold dig- 

 gings was made by the mouth of the 

 river, but later a route across the Chil- 

 koot Pass, which had been jealously 

 guarded by the coast Indians, was 

 opened up, and during the succeeding 

 decade was annually used by not a few 

 prospectors. The discovery of the phe- 

 nomenally rich placer diggings in the 

 Klondike in 1897 was followed by a 

 great influx of gold-seekers during the 

 succeeding two years. In the years 

 1897 an d 1898 probably 60,000 people 

 made their way to Alaska and the 

 Yukon territory by various routes, but 

 most of this travel was by the well- 

 known coast passes from the head of 

 Lynn Canal. 



The public interest thus aroused led 

 to a demand for more exact informa- 

 tion, which resulted in appropriations 

 being made for several government bu- 

 reaus to undertake this work, and ex- 

 ploration and surveys were begun in 

 1898. The Geological Survey had six 

 parties in the field the first year, and 



