rs; it was plundered and destroyed in 1852 by the
Coast Indians, and only the ruins now exist of what was at one time the
most important post of the Hudson's Bay Company to the west of the Rocky
Mountains in the far north. In 1869 the Hudson's Bay Company's officer
was expelled from Fort Yukon by the United States Government, they
haying ascertained by astronomical observations that the post was not
located in British territory. The officer thereupon ascended the
Porcupine to a point which was supposed to be within British
jurisdiction, where he established Rampart House; but in 1890 Mr. J.H.
Turner of the United States Coast Survey found it to be 20 miles within
the lines of the United States. Consequently in 1891 the post was moved
20 miles further up the river to be within British territory.

"The next people to enter the country for trading purposes were Messrs.
Harper and McQuestion. They have been trading in the country since 1873
and have occupied numerous posts all along the river, the greater number
of which have been abandoned. Mr. Harper is now located as a trader at
Fort Selkirk, with Mr. Joseph Ladue under the firm name of Harper &
Ladue, and Mr. McQuestion is in the employ of the Alaska Commercial
Company at Circle City, which is the distributing point for the vast
regions surrounding Birch Creek, Alaska. In 1882 a number of miners
entered the Yukon country by the Taiya Pass; it is still the only route
used to any extent by the miners, and is shorter than the other passes
though not the lowest. In 1883 Lieutenant Schwatka crossed this same
pass and descended the Lewes and Yukon Rivers to the ocean.

"The explorers found that in proximity to the boundary line there
existed extensive and valuable placer gold mines, in which even then as
many as three hundred miners were at work. Mr. Ogilvie determined, by a
series of lunar observations, the point at which the Yukon River is
intersected by the 141st meridian, and marked the same on the ground. He
also determined and marked the point at which the western affluent of
the Yukon, known as Forty Mile Creek, is crossed by the same meridian
line, that point being situated at a distance of about twenty-three
miles from the mouth of the creek. This survey proved that the place
which had been selected as the most convenient, owing to the physical
conformation of the region, from which to distribute the supplies
imported for the various mining camps, and from which to c