It may be that the Alaskan Indians are doomed; it may be that the liquor and disease which to-day are working havoc amongst them will destroy them off the face of the earth; it is common to meet white men who assume it with complacency. Those who are fighting for the natives with all their hearts and souls do not believe it, cannot believe it, cannot believe that this will be the end of all their efforts, that any such blot will foul the escutcheon of the United States. But if it be so, let at least the memorial of their names remain. When the inhabited wilderness has become an uninhabited wilderness, when the only people who will ever make their homes in it are exterminated, when the placer-gold is gone and the white men have gone also, when the last interior Alaskan town is like Diamond City and Glacier City and Bearpaw City and Roosevelt City; and Bettles and Rampart and Coldfoot; and Cleary City and Delta City and Vault City and a score of others; let at least the native names of these great mountains remain to show that there once dwelt in the land a simple, hardy race who braved successfully the rigors of its climate and the inhospitality of their environment and flourished, until the septic contact of a superior race put corruption into their blood. So this book shall end as it began. [Illustration: Map Showing Route of the Stuck-Karstens Expedition to the Summit of Mt. Denali (Mt. McKinley.) 1913] Transcriber's Notes Sidenotes were created from the unique headers on alternate pages of the original text, with some minor amendments. The following typos were corrected: corrected: original: on page: Iditarod Iditerod 5 La Voy LeVoy 41 La Voy Le Voy 97 (in footnote) whatna whatna' 63 (twice) nor or 103 Revillagigedo Revillegigedo 142 page 94 page 96 186 All Native American words were left with the accents given them intact. On page 38 a possible missing word "he" was not added due to uncertainty about the author's intentions: "... but the dogs must be tended, and the main food for them [he?] was yet to seek...." The five instances of "base-camp" were changed to comply with common usage: "base camp."