YUKON. The Yukon territory is the most northwesterly of the political divisions of the Dominion of Canada. It embraces a large, roughly triangular area of country, measuring about 207,000 square miles, bounded on the south by British Columbia, on the west by Alaska, on the north by the Arctic Ocean and on the north east by the series of mountain ranges separating the Yukon and Mackenzie basins. The popula tion in 1911 was about 8512, of which over 3,000 were Indians.
Topography.— The territory includes a mountainous belt on the northeast consisting of the Selwyn, Ogilvie and Peel River ranges of mountains, all of which are usually classed in the Rocky Mountain System, and the great Saint Elias range on the southwest. A number of peaks in the latter range, such as Mount Saint Elias and Mount Logan, exceed 18,000 feet in height. The central part of the territory is a broken upland known as the Yukon plateau. a great tract of rolling country deeply trenched in all directions by the wide valleys of the present and preglacial drainage system. Toward the Arctic Ocean the plateau is replaced by a plain sloping easily down to sea-level.
The greater part of the Yukon territory is drained by the Yukon River, with a total length of 2,301) miles, the fifth largest river on the North American continent and one of the great rivers of the world. The Yukon is formed by the junction of the Lewes and the former drawing mist of its waters from the Coast Range and the latter from the mountains of the Rocky Mountain Syi.tem. Other large tribu taries of the upper Yukon arc %%lite River, a swift, turbid stream heading in the glaciers of the Saint Elias Range, and the Stewart and Porcupine rivers, both of which enter it from the east. River steamers navigate the Yukon River throughout its whole length and also ascend the Lewes up to Whitehorse rapids, a total distance from tide-water of about 2,000 miles. The Pelly, Stewart and other tribu taries are also navigable for some hundreds of miles above the junctions with the mails stream.
Fauna and Flora.— The valley flats and the lower slopes of the hills and ridges throughout the territory are more or less thickly forested. while the uplands are bare. In the souther. part of the territory the forest ceases at an ele vation of 4,000 feet above the sea. Going north ward the tree line descends gradually, and at the Arctic circle has an elevation of less than 2,030 feet above the sea. The principal forest trees are the white and black spruces (Picea albs and P. niers), the tremsiloides). the balsam poplar (Po balsomifers), the ball sam fir (tibiasu piao), the black pine (Puna ifurrayasse), and the birch (Behold The larger animals of the district include the black and brown bear, the woodland and barren land caribou, the moose, at least two species of mountain sheep, the mountain goat, the timber wolf, the red fox and the wolverine, lynx and martin.
Climate.-- The climate is severe. The win ter season lasts from about the first November until April. The rivers are usually frozen by the first of November and remain frozen mewl May, while the lakes are seldom free from ice before the first of June. During the winter season thaws are infrequent and the tempera ture usually ranges from zero to 40' F. below. Occasional dips to 60° F. below and one to F. below have been recorded. The low temperatures are usually acconignined by a dry atmosphere and do not occasion much hardship. The summer season, lasting from the middle of May to the middle of September, is exceedingly pleasant, as the long clear days are never op pressively hot and the nights are always cool. The rainfall is light, the annual preapatauos amounting to about 15 inches.
History.— The history of the Yukon terri tory dates back only to the year 1840. In that year Robert Campbell, a fur trader in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company. crossed from the Liard, a tributary of the Mackenzie. and discovered and named the Pay. one of the main branches of the Yukon. In 1843 the same explorer descended the Pelly to its junction with the Lewes and was thus the first trader to reach the upper Yukon. In 1846 J. Bell. also ie the employ of the Hudson Bay Company. de scended the Porcupine to the Yukon. and us the following year Fort Yukon was built at the con fluence of the two streams. In 1849 Fort Selkirk was established at the junction of the Lewes and the Pelly. It was raided and burnt by the Coast Indians in 1852 and was never rebuilt. Fort Yukon was occupied until 1869, when its site was proved to be in Alaskan territory and it was abandoned. and a new fort was built at the upper ramparts of the Porcupine In Mt Campbell descended the Yukon from Fort Sel kirk to Fort Yukon and proved its identity with the Kwikhpak. the name by which the lower portion of the river was known to the Russians The fur traders were followed, after an interval of some years, by the prospector. The first gold seeker entered the country by the Chilkoot pass, through the Coast Range, in 1873. In 1881, bar-mining began on the Big Salmon River, and discoveries of produc tive bars on the Lewes, Pelly and Stewart soon followed. The first discovery of coarse gold was made in 1886 on Forty-mile River and was followed by important finds on streams flow ing into Sixty-mile River. The Sixty-mile streams were actively worked until the an nouncement, in 18%, of the discovery of aston ishingly rich creeks in the Klondike district drew most of the miners away. In 1897-98 a stream of 30,000 adventurers, including people of all trades and callings, poured into the coun try. all beading for the Klondike.