File:Exploring the great Yukon. An adventurous expedition down the great Yukon River, from its source in the British North-west Territory, to its mouth in the territory of Alaska (1890) (14595545330).jpg

Identifier: exploringgreatyu00schwrich (find matches)
Title: Exploring the great Yukon. An adventurous expedition down the great Yukon River, from its source in the British North-west Territory, to its mouth in the territory of Alaska
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Schwatka, Frederick, 1849-1892
Subjects: Yukon River (Yukon and Alaska) Alaska -- Description and travel United States -- Discovery and exploration
Publisher: (n.p.) Art and Science Publishing Society
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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black earth, while oftentimes the stripe wasplain on one side of the river and wholly wanting on theother. A close inspection showed it to be volcanic ash,sufficiently consolidated to have the consistency of stiffearth, but nevertheless so friable that it could be reducedto powder by the thumb and fingers. It possibly repre-sents the result of some exceptionally violent erup-tion in ancient times from one or more of the manyvolcanic cones, now probably extinct, with which thewhole southern coast of Alaska is studded. The asheswere carried far and wide by the winds, and if the latterthen, as now, blew almost persistently from the south-ward during the summer (and I understand the reverseis the case in the winter), we could reasonably fix theeruption at that time of the year. The Yukon River as it widens also becomes very tor-tuous in many places, and oftentimes a score of milesis traversed along the axis of the stream while the divid-ers on the map hardly show half a dozen between the
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DOWN THE RIVER TO SELKIRK. 199 same points. In the region about the mouth of the Nor-denskiold River a conspicuous bald butte could be seendirectly in front of our raft no less than seven times, onas many different stretches of the river. I called it Tan-talus Butte, and was glad enough to see it disappearfrom sight. The day we shot the Rink Rapids, and only a few hoursafterward, we also saw our first moose plowing throughthe willow brush on the eastern bank of the stream like ahurricane in his frantic endeavors to escape, an under-taking in which he was completely successful. When firstseen by one of the party on the raft, his great broad pal-mated horns rolling through the top of the willow brake,with an occasional glimpse of his brownish black sidesshowing, he was mistaken for an Indian running down apath in the brake and swaying his arms in the air to attractour attention. My Winchester express rifle was nearme, and as the ungainly animal came into full sight at aplace where a lit

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