FEBRUARY 29, 1884.] 
ah-gon (meaning the place between high hills), 
consists of one log house about eighteen by 
thirty, and a score of the brush houses usual 
in this country; that is, three main poles, 
one much longer than the rest, and serving 
as a ridge-pole on which to pile evergreen 
brush to complete the house. This brush is 
sometimes replaced by the most thoroughly 
ventilated reindeer or moose skin, and in rare 
cases by an old piece of canvas. Such are 
the almost constant habitations of these abject 
creatures. In the spring Kitl-ah-gon is de- 
serted by the Indians, who then ascend the 
river with loads so light that they can be car- 
ried on their backs. By the close approach of 
winter-time they have worked so far away, 
accumulating the little salmon, moose, black 
bear, and caribou, on which they are to subsist, 
that they build a light raft from the driftwood 
on the islands, and float down to live in squalor 
through the winter. These rafts are almost 
their sole means of navigation from Miles’ 
Canon to Fort Selkirk, and the triangular 
houses almost their only abodes; and all this 
in a country teeming with good enough timber 
for log-houses, and plenty of birchbark for 
canoes. Kit!-ah-gon is in a beautiful large 
valley,’ as its name would impart; and I was 
1 Von Wilczek valley, after Graf von Wilczek of Vienna. 
SCIENCE. 
251 
surprised to see it drained by so small a stream 
as the one, but ten or fifteen yards wide, which 
goes out at its foot. Its proximity to the 
Pelly forbids its draining a great area, yet its 
valley is much the more conspicuous of the 
two. Photographs of it and adjacent scenes 
on the river were secured before departing, 
and a rough ‘ prospect’ in the valley showed 
‘color’ enough to brighten the hopes of some 
enthusiastic miner for something he would 
prize more highly. 
From Kit!-ah-gon to old Selkirk is but a 
little over twenty miles; and the river isso full 
of islands in many places, that for long stretches 
we could hardly see both banks atatime. ‘This, 
I think, is one of the ancient lakes to which I 
have alluded, although the report of a profes- 
sional geologist would be needed to settle such 
a matter. J was very anxious to determine the 
relative sizes of the two rivers that joined just 
above Selkirk, as upon this determination rested 
whether the Pelly or the Lewis River of the 
old Hudson-bay traders was the Yukon proper ; 
and I was fully prepared to make exact meas- 
urements, soundings, rate of current, and other 
data if necessary, to settle the point. This was 
only needed in a rough manner, however, as 
the preponderance of the Lewis River was too 
evident to require any exactness to confirm it. 
INDIAN VILLAGE OF KIT!-AH-GON IN THE VON WILCZEK VALLEY. 
It is deserted in summer, and occupied in winter. 
