File:Alaska and its resources (1870) (14781985031).jpg

Identifier: 1870alaskaitsres00dalluoft (find matches)
Title: Alaska and its resources
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Dall, William Healey, 1845-1927
Subjects: Alaska
Publisher: Boston : Lee and Shepard
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
n, little of interestoccurring. It was noticed that the trees began to grow smallerand more sparse as we ascended the river. The sun hardlydipped belov/ the horizon at midnight, and his noontide raysscorched like a furnace. The mosquitoes were like smoke in theair. Through constant and enforced observation, I came to dis-tinguish four kinds, — a large gray one, and another with whiteleg-joints, a very small dust-colored one which held its probos-cis horizontally in advance, and another small one which carriedits probe in the orthodox manner. All were distinguished fromthe civilized species by the reckless daring of their attack.Thousands might be killed before their eyes, yet the survivorssounded their trumpets and carried on the war. A blanket of-fered them no impediment; buckskin alone defied their art. Atmeal-times, forced to remove our nets, we sat until nearly stifledin the smoke, and, emerging for a breath of air, received nomercy. My companions hands, between sunburn and mos-
Text Appearing After Image:
THE YUKON TERRITORY. lOI quitoes, were nearly raw, and I can well conceive that a manwithout a net, in one of these marshes, would soon die fromnervous exhaustion. The mosquitoes drive the moose, deer, andbear into the river, and all nature rejoices when the end of July-comes, and their reign is at an end. Both banks had become very low and flat; the region had adreary appearance. Only five snow-covered peaks, supposed to bepart of the Romantzofif range, rose above the level of the plains.These are the only mountains near the Yukon, in RussianAmerica north of the Alaskan range, which bear snow through-out the year. The plain here described reaches to the shores of the ArcticOcean, broken only by a few ranges of low mountains near thecoast, of which the Romantzofif are the highest. To the eastwardit rises almost imperceptibly, attaining its highest elevation be-tween the head-waters of the Porcupine and the left bank of theMackenzie. This table-land, somewhat broken and rocky, as seena

Note About Images