Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/886

* YTJKAGIRS. 748 YUKON GOLD-FIELDS. bered in 1898 but 700 persons speaking their mother-tongue. Some of the Tungusic Lamuts, their neighbors, however, speak Yukagir, while the Yukagirs of Verkhoiansk iiave adopted the Lamut. The Chuvanzes of the Aniu}- and the Upper Anadyr are classed with the Yukagirs. In physique the Y'ukagirs resemble the Tungus- Lamuts, but are more brachyeephalic, and gen- erally have lighter hair. The color of their skin is often quite light, especially among the women. Older accounts represent them as a warlike peo- ple having many contests with the Chukchi, Kor- iaks, and Russians. Consult: Kohn and Andree, Sibirien nnd das Amurgebiet (Leipzig, 1876) ; Muller, Vnter Tungusen und Jakuten (ib., 1882). YTJKI, yuo'ke (Wintun Indian, aliens, enemy). A group of tribes constituting the nucleus of the Y'ukian stock, centring in Round Valley and on the headwaters of the Eel River, in the present Mendocino County, northwestern California. They were on friendly terms with their northern neighbors, the Wailaki, with whom they are much intermarried, but main- tained constant aggressive warfare upon the more peaceful Pomo (q.v.) and Wintun (q.v.), and were bitterly hostile to the whites, seeking revenge with desperate persistence. Their houses were conical structures of poles and bark, some- times thatched in winter, with large dome-shaped townhouses thatched and covered with earth. They wore little clothing beyond the G-string and both sexes tattooed the face. The dead were sometimes burned, but usually buried in a sit- ting posture. Their history from the irruption of the white miners in 1849 until the remnant was gathered upon a reservation twenty-five years later was one of unceasing raids and piti- less extermination. They were estimated on good authority at over ."iOOO about 18.50. The confed- erated Y'uki and Wailaki now on Round Valley Reservation number only 280, steadily decreas- ing. YUKON, yoo'kon. A Territory 'of Canada occupying the northwestern portion of the Do- minion. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Territory of ilackenzie, on the south by British Columbia and southern Alaska, and on the west by the main portion of Alaska, the boundary, toward which is the 141st, meridian of west longitude (Map: Canada, D 4). Area, about 19(1,300 square miles. The surface, whose features were little known until the last decade of the nineteenth century, is uneven in greater part, with the general elevation between 2000 and 3000 feet, and the whole covuitry is filled with mountain ranges and rolling liills penetrated everywhere by large navigable rivers. There are a number of peaks rising considerably above the snow-line in the north and in the south- west, the loftiest being Mount Logan, close to the Alaskan boundary adjacent to Mount Saint Elias, with an elevation tliought to exceed 19.000 feet. The main divide of the Rocky Mountains, separating the watershed of the Y'ukon from that of tlie Mackenzie, forms the eastern boundary, but it is in parts so low and depressed as to barely give the aspect even of a line of hills. The principal river is the Yukon, whose navigable lieadstreams and branches penetrate almost every part of the Territory. With respect to climate the Yukon is one of the coldest regions in the world. A maximum temperature of over 80 ' F. is frequently observed in summer, but the sum- mers are very short, and frost occurs every month in the year. In winter a temperature of 50° below zero is common, and it has been recorded as low as 63° and 68°. The air is, however, dry, and the rainfall is not heavy, though it is suffi- cient to support large forests or woods of spruce and poplar, which cover the valleys and moun- tain slopes up to an altitude of about 2500 feet; the timber, however, is rarely of large dimensions. The agricultural possibilities of the Territory are probably not very great, but some of the hardier crops, such as rye and barley, are easily raised, and some little truck farming of potatoes, turnips, lettuce, peas, and cabbage lias been car- ried on in different localities. The geological structure is largely a continuation of that of British Columbia, consisting mainly of Arohtean ridges flanked by extensive Paleozoic strata, which contains some of the richest gold-fields in the world. (See YuKOx Gold-Field.s. ) Beds of lignitic coal occur. Before the discovery of gold in 1896 the Y'ukon district was almost unin- habited; in 1901 the census population was 27,- 219. In 1898 the district was organized as a separate Territory, and Dawson (q.v. I is now the capital. Means of communication are amply af- forded by the navigable rivers Avithin the Terri- tory, but access across the mountainous borders was at first very difficult. A railroad traversing the White Pass is now in operation between Skagway and the upper waters of the Y'ukon. YUKON GOLD-FIELDS. It is intended to descrilie under this title not only the gold-mining districts situated along the tributaries of the Y'ukon River, but also the Nome district of Seward Peninsula, which was discovered and developed largely as a result of the operations in the Y'ukon region. The occurrence of gold in the in- terior of Alaska was known in the early part of the last century, but it was not until 1886. when the auriferous gravels of Forty-JIile Creek, a tributary of the Y'ukon. were founil. that mining operations assumed a permanent character. Soon after this date the settlements of Forty-Mile and Circle City became the centres of a small min- ing industry, and further explorations made known the gold districts of Birch Creek. Mission Creek. Koyukuk River, and other streams in the Y'ukon basin. In August. 1896. a rich placer claim was located by a California prospector on Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, which Joins the Yukon a short distance above the American boundary. This discovery may be said to mark the beginning of the present important industry. It was followed by an in- vasion of miners from the other fields of Alaska, and during the ensuing winter began the remark- able 'rush' from Canada and the I'nited States, which was attended with terrible hardships and great loss of life. By the summer of 1S98 there were over 40.000 people in the Klondike region, and Dawson had become a thriving camp with several thousand iiihaliitants. The Klondike region includes approximately the area lying on the east side of the Y'ukon River between the Klondike River on the north and the Indian liiver on the south. The gold is found in gravid deposits along the courses of the small streams. Its source has been presumed to be the quartz veins which occur in the schists of