At Fort Selkirk the Yukon begins to cut through the northern spurs of the Rocky mountains. This part of the river is known as the Upper Ramparts, and the scenery along the banks for one hundred miles is wondrously beautiful. Schwatka and his party left Selkirk July 15, and traveled through this beautiful country. As they rounded one of the islands, they saw about two hundred Ayan Indians gathered on the beach opposite, waiting to receive them. The Ayans had heard of the approach of the curious raft with its white owners, and were anxious to show them some attention. Many of the Indians ran up and down the bank, shouting, screaming, and waving their arms wildly. Others in birch-bark canoes surrounded the raft, and escorted it to shore. When the raft came near the shore, men, women, and children waded out to their waists in the ice-cold water and helped to drag it in. Schwatka feared at first that the Indians might do the party some harm, and ordered his companions to keep their guns near. But the Indians were very friendly. They began singing and dancing, while their medicine-man went through the most unheard-of performances. The Ayan huts are made of spruce brush. Over the top is thrown a piece of dirty canvas or a moose or caribou skin, and the huts are built so low that a man can scarcely stand erect inside. Quantities of salmon hang from the roof, partly dried, but still undergoing a smoking process from the dense clouds of smoke that arise from the fire. The dogs sleep in the house, lying around on the floor. In the winter the Ayans cover their tents thickly with skins and then bank them about with snow. As the party followed the river from this Indian village, they found the mountains becoming higher and grander, while――by way of contrast――the mosquitoes grew more annoying. The whole region swarmed with them, and the newcomers longed for veils. They were obliged to use small bushes to brush away the mosquitoes. The water of the Yukon became very muddy, so that it was impossible to fish with a rod and fly. At the Yukon flat lands, reached by our travelers after three weeks of traveling through this flat region, the river widened and was filled with low, sandy islands. The fort is situated on a curve of the river which happens to be almost directly upon the Arctic circle, and is called the Great Arctic bend. Fort Yukon is about one thousand miles from the mouth of the river, which at this point is seven miles wide. The river steamer, named the _Yukon_, was moored at the fort, and her cannon greeted the raftsmen. The settlement consists of a few old houses and the old fort built by the Hudson Bay Company. The Fort Yukon tribe of Indians live in the vicinity, but the hunting and fishing are poor, and the tribe is small and nomadic.