These Eskimos wrap their dead in skins closely sewed and lay them in the tundra, together with the worldly possessions of the deceased, without any funeral ceremonies. It would be sacrilege for any one to disturb this property left with the body, and no member of the tribe would think of doing so. In the Yukon Valley the remains of elephants and buffaloes are found fossilized, as those of the rhinoceros were discovered on the opposite continent in Siberia, thus showing that this now arctic region was once tropical, a conclusion, nevertheless, which seems to be almost impossible to the traveler while gazing upon Niagaras of frozen rivers in the month of July. The Yukon River is the Mississippi of Alaska, forming with its several tributaries the great inland highway of the Territory. As yet there are no roads in the country, everything is transported by water or on the backs of the natives; the great importance of such an extensive water-way can therefore be readily understood. The magnitude of the Yukon—one of the twelve longest rivers in the world—will be realized by the fact that it is still a matter of doubt among different writers which of the two rivers named is the largest with respect to the volume of their currents, though Ivan Petroff, in his report as agent of the Secretary of the Interior, speaks thus confidently upon the subject: “The people of the United States will not be quick to take the idea that the volume of water in an Alaskan river is greater than that discharged by their own Mississippi; but it is entirely within the bounds of honest statement to say that the Yukon River, the vast deltoid mouth of which opens into Norton Sound, of Behring Strait, discharges every hour of recorded time as much, if not one third more, water, than the ‘Father of Waters’ as it flows to the Gulf of Mexico.” This writer does not seem to us given to exaggeration, but still we are a little inclined to question the accuracy of his estimate as to the volume of water borne seaward by this great Alaskan river.