bindlb.] GEOGRAPHIC DESCIPTION. 17 
Road houses have been established at points along the main trails 
a the vicinity of the mining regions. Good board and bunks are to 
e had, and the cultivation of garden spots within the last few years 
as resulted in the addition of a wholesome variety of fresh vege- 
ables to the ordinary Alaskan diet. Caribou, too, killed in the fall 
hd winter months, are often kept in cold storage throughout the 
lunmer in ice houses or in old shafts, where at a depth of 20 to 30 
let the ground is always frozen. Grayling are abundant in the 
tear streams and are easily caught. 
The members of the party during the journey often experienced 
lie helpfulness and hospitality so characteristic of the prospector, 
nd have occasion to look back with pleasure upon the days spent 
mong men who have labored hard in a quiet way to satisfy the 
raving for individual independence and have gained through hard- 
hip something that is worth while even if their hopes are yet un- 
ealized. In the hazy atmosphere of an after-dinner smoke in some 
eatly kept cabin bits of Alaskan exploration come to the surface 
thich tell most forcibly the story of the days of 1898; or perhaps a 
lue column of smoke, faintly rising from the spruces of some lonely 
ulch, guides one to the temporary camp of a pioneer who has been 
a Alaska since the first discovery of gold. Over a cup of coffee, pre- 
pared in an old baking-powder can, one is made to understand the 
nportant part these men have played in the development of this por- 
lon of our possessions and their reasons for having learned to call 
b home. 
GEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION. 
TOPOGRAPHY. 
The Yukon-Tanana area is only a portion of the great interior 
ilateau which extends from the northern base of the Pacific Moun- 
iiin system to the Rocky Mountains, far north of Yukon River and east 
nd west throughout Alaska. The average altitude is about 3,000 feet 
bove sea level, and the undulating surface presents a comparatively 
ven sky line, broken by occasional, short, rugged, sharp-peaked 
idges, which rise to a height of about 6,000 feet, and by lower, 
solated prominences, locally known as " domes." ( See map, PI. XV I. 
l pocket.) The apparent continuity of the general surface is i nt er- 
upted by many steep-walled valleys which have been incised to a 
epth of 1,000 to 3,000 feet and have made the area one of broad 
jndulating divides and long flat-topped spurs, all of nearly uniform 
evation. Toward the Yukon the plateau region breaks off abruptly 
the river or to the surface of the large area known as the Yukon 
lats, and the outer edge of it has frequently become a fringe of sharp 
dges separating the many smaller streams in the vicinity of the 
Bull. 251— 05 m 2 
