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Yukon (Largest stream in the extreme)

the largest stream in the extreme N. W. portion of the North American continent. It is 2,200 miles in length, the Mackenzie river, near it, being estimated at 2,300 miles. It is the 17th river of the world as to length, the seventh of the Western Hemisphere, the fourth of the North American continent, and the third in the United States. This last assertion is based on its whole length of 2,044 miles, however, but taking only that portion which is in the 4:88 United States, or Alaska, 1,260 miles, it is the fifth river of our country, the Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, and Ohio rivers being longer. Its length in navigable miles is 2,036, there being but four rivers in the world with a greater capacity, the Amazon, the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the St. Lawrence. The entire portion lying in the United States (Alaska) of 1,260 miles is navigable by river steamers. The first absolutely impracticable obstruction to navigation is at the Grand Cañon, 1,866 miles from the mouth. The Yukon river rises in Crater Lake, on the E. slopes of the Alaskan coast range (here called Kotusk Mountains), in British Columbia. In a few miles it passes into the British Northwest Territory, flows N. by W. 784 miles, and enters Alaska about lat. 65° N. This direction is kept till the Arctic circle is just reached, when the Yukon river bends suddenly at almost right angles, flows W. by S. about 1,000 miles, and empties into Bering Sea by a delta whose N. and S. mouths are from 80 to 90 miles apart.