"The mean summer temperature in the interior doubtless ranges between 60 and 70 degrees, according to elevation, being highest in the middle and lower Yukon valleys."
Accurate data of the temperature in the Klondike district were kept at Fort Constantine last year. The temperature first touched zero Nov. 10, and the zero weather recorded in the spring was on April 29.
Between Dec. 19 and Feb. 6 it never rose above zero. The lowest actual point, 65 below, occurred on Jan. 27, and on twenty-four days during the winter the temperature was below 50.
On March 12 it first rose above the freezing point, but no continuous mild weather occurred until May 4, after which date the temperature during the balance of the month frequently rose above 60 degrees.
The Yukon River froze up on Oct. 28 and broke up on May 17.
The long and severe winter and the frozen moss-covered ground are serious obstacles to agriculture and stock raising. The former can change but little with coming seasons, but the latter, by gradually burning off areas, can be overcome to some extent. On such burned tracts hardy vegetables have been and may be raised, and the area open to such use is considerable. Potatoes do well and barley will mature a fair crop.
Live stock may be kept by providing an abundance of shelter and feed and housing them during the winter. In summer an abundance of the finest grass pasture can be had, and great quantities of natural hay can be cut in various places.
Diseases: In spite of all that is heard in the newspapers regarding the healthfulness of the climate of Alaska and the upper Yukon, the Census Report of Alaska offers its incontestable statistics to the effect that the country is not more salubrious, nor its people more healthy than could be expected in a region of violent climate, where the most ordinary laws of health remain almost totally ignored. From the Government Report we quote the following:
"Those diseases which are most fatal to life in one section of Alaska seem to be applicable to all others. In the first place, the native children receive little or no care, and for the first few years of their lives are more often naked than clothed, at all seasons of the year. Consumption is the simple and comprehensive title for the disease which destroys the greater number of the people of Alaska. Aluet, Indian and Eskimo suffer from it alike; and all alike exhibit the same stolid indifference to its slow and fatal progress, make no attempt to ward it off, take no special precautions even when the disease reaches its climax.
