summer white population is perhaps 40 people, but the winter population is larger, owing to the fact that some of the miners from the near-by mining districts spend the winter in Eagle. On the Seventymile River and on American Creek, adjacent to Eagle, there are 20 to 30 people engaged in mining, and just upstream from Eagle is a settlement of natives. Circle is at the upper end of the Yukon Flats, upon a great river flood plain. It is the supply point for the Birch Creek mining district, to the south. It has at present a summer population of less than a score of white people, but, like Eagle, it has an augmented winter population, which is derived from the near-by Birch Creek mining district. There are also a considerable number of natives living permanently at and near Circle. Between Eagle and Circle are two smaller settlements, Nation and Woodchopper, the former on the southwest bank of the Yukon about 2 miles below the mouth of the Nation River and the latter on the same side of the river just above the mouth of Woodchopper Creek. Only two men live permanently at Nation, but 8 or 10 others are engaged in mining on the near-by Fourth of July Creek. Similarly at Woodchopper the population consists mainly of the 15 or 20 men engaged in mining and prospecting on Woodchopper, Coal, and Sam Creeks. A few trappers and prospectors also live along the river between Eagle and Circle, but the total white population of this district immediately contiguous to the Yukon, not including the Fortymile and Birch Creek mining districts, is probably less than 100. TRAILS AND TRANSPORTATION The Yukon River is the arterial highway of this region, being traversed by river craft in summer and by dog sleds in winter. Few summer roads have yet been made in this part of Alaska. A wagon road connects Eagle with American Creek and extends on southward as a pack trail to the Fortymile district, another extends out from Circle to the Birch Creek mining district, and during the summer of 1925 a short road was being constructed from Nation up Fourth of July Creek. Much of the freighting is done in winter by horse and dog sleds, but these winter trails are of little use for summer transportation. Supplies for this region, including the Fortymile and Birch Creek districts, are received mainly by way of Skagway and Whitehorse and thence down the Yukon through Canadian territory by river boats. The Alaska Railroad does not serve the upper Yukon region, and the costs of passenger and freight transportation are high. A new summer road has recently been built to connect Fairbanks with |