with favorable results towards the head of the river, which is more easily reached overland from Circle City and the Birch Creek camps.

Leaving Nuklukahyet, the "Ramparts" are soon sighted, and the Yukon rapids sweep between bluffs and hills which rise about fifteen hundred feet above the river, which is not more than half a mile wide and seems almost as much underground as a river bed in a canyon. The rocks are metaphoric quartzites, and the river-bed is crossed by a belt of granite. The rapid current has worn the granite away at either side, making two good channels, but in the center lies an island of granite over which the water plunges at high water, the fall being about twelve feet in half a mile.

Beyond the mouth of the Tananah the Yukon begins to widen, and it is filled with small islands. The mountains disappear, and just beyond them the Totokakat, or Dall River of Ketchum, enters the Yukon from the north. Beyond this point the river, ever broadening, passes the "Small Houses," deserted along the bank at the time, years ago, when the scarlet fever, brought by a trading vessel to the mouth of the Chilkat, spread to the Upper Yukon and depopulated the station. This place is noted for the abundance of its game and fish.

The banks of the river above this point become

very low and flat, the plain stretching almost unbroken to the Arctic Ocean.

The next stream which empties into the Yukon is Beaver Creek, and farther on the prospector bound for Circle City may make his way some two hundred miles up Birch Creek, along which much gold has already been discovered, to a portage of six miles, which will carry him within six miles of Circle City on the west.

Meanwhile the Yukon passes Porcupine River and Fort Yukon, the old trading-post founded in 1846-7, about a mile farther up the river than the present fort is situated. The situation was changed in 1864, owing to the undermining of the Yukon, which yearly washed away a portion of the steep bank until the foundation timbers of the old Redoubt overhung the flood.

Many small islands encumber the river from Fort Yukon to Circle City, and the river flows along the rich lowland to the towns and mining centers of the new El Dorado, an account of which belongs to a future chapter.

This voyage can be made only between the middle of June and the middle of September, and requires about forty days, at best, from San Francisco to Circle City or Forty Mile.

Route via Juneau, the Passes and down the Up

per Yukon River. The second and more usual, because shorter and quicker course, is that to the head of Lynn Canal (Taiya Inlet) and overland. This coast voyage may be said to begin at Victoria, B. C. (since all coast steamers gather and stop there), where a large number of persons prefer to buy their outfits, since by so doing, and obtaining a certificate of the fact, they avoid the custom duties exacted at the boundary line on all goods and equipments brought from the United States. Victoria is well supplied with stores, and is, besides, one of the most interesting towns on the Pacific coast. The loveliest place in the whole neighborhood is Beacon Hill Park, and is well worth a visit by those who find an hour or two on their hands before the departure of the steamer. It forms a half-natural, half-cultivated area of the shore of the Straits of Fuca, where coppices of the beautiful live oak, and many strange trees and shrubs mingled with the allpervading evergreens.

Within three miles of the city, and reached by street cars, is the principal station in the North Pacific of the British navy, at Esquimault Bay. This is one of the most picturesque harbors in the world, and a beginning is made of fortifications upon a very large scale and of the most modern character. This station, in many respects, is the most interest