Reconnaissance from Fort Hamlin to Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, by way of Dall, Kanuti, Allen, and Kowak Rivers

The reconnaissance described in the following pages was carried out in pursuance of a plan which has been followed for some years by the United States Geological Survey in the topographic and geologic exploration of the little-known parts of Alaska and in the collection of such information as will be of value not only to the scientific world, but to the prospector, the miner, and the trader. Capital disappears and years are wasted by prospectors who push out beyond the shifting frontier and pursue their search for gold where gold is not to be expected, and lives are being continually lost because the location and character of trails, drainage ways, and mountain ranges and passes are unknown, or because the knowledge which a few possess is not in a form available for the use of others.