Yukon River, which is located below the photo, closes the top five longest waterways in North America.Moreover, this indicator, it is located at position 21 in the world.In the language of its local Aboriginal name means "great river."Large settlements, built on it, are Marshall Circle, Raylot Station, Fort Yukon and others.
General description
Yukon River on the map of North America is mainly in the north-western part.It flows through the US and Canada.The US state of Alaska is visually divided this waterway into two roughly equal parts.His beginning, it takes on the territory of a Canadian province called British Columbia.The mouth is located opposite the island of St. Lawrence, not far from the Gulf of Norton.The total area of the basin, which is a deep, narrow and long, exceeding the mark of 855,000 square kilometers.The length of the Yukon is 3185 kilometers.It should be noted that this is the longest waterway, which flows through the territory of Canada.
Opening
about this river of humanity virtually nothing was known before the beginning of the nineteenth century.She is considered a pioneer Peter Korsakov from Russia.It was his detailed description of the mouth, dated 1819, it is now considered the most long-standing.In addition, our compatriot a few years later founded a settlement here, called St. Michael's Redoubt.After 49 Alaska became a US state, it was renamed St. Michael.Under this name the village is known today.In 1843, a Russian naval officer L. Zagoskin described the lower reaches of the waterway.
Yukon River is now a very popular tourist destination.Many of them prefer to travel along it in boats or canoes.In 1897, local places, visited the famous writer Jack London.He was so impressed by them that spent there more than six months.
The course
River source, as noted above, is located in northern British Columbia.They assumed Atlin Lake, which is located at an altitude of 731 meters above sea level.Along with several more lakes created original chain the last link of which is Lake Marsh.Just north of it is the main administrative center of the North of Canada and the federal territory - the city of Whitehorse.Despite its importance, it is very small and has a population of 21,000 inhabitants.
After the Yukon River bends around it, she rushes to the north-west direction and extends five kilometers, thereby forming Lake Laberdzh.The length of its basin is about fifty kilometers.Next, the water flow crosses the US border, and then turns in Alaska.Here, the channel is in a mountainous area, it is not surprising that the river is full of rapids.Immediately after the small town of Eagle, she goes on a flat terrain.
near the mountain village begins the Yukon Delta.The number of the local population does not even reach the mark of one thousand people.The people here are by American standards are very poor.This was the village water stream is divided into a plurality of channels, and then flows into the Bering Sea.It should be noted that the area between the rivers of the Yukon and Kuskokwim in Alaska is the green area.
climate and water regime
winter in the basin waterway lasts about nine months.At this time, there are times when the temperature drops to fifty degrees below zero.In connection with such weather conditions the region is characterized by a kind of settlement.Most of the villages here are small, but their population - two times less than it was during the gold rush.Whatever it was, the Yukon River has a large hydropower potential.An interesting feature of it is that through it spanned only four bridges.
waterways of snow has mostly food.In the period from June to July, the time comes to flooding.At this time, the water level can be raised here for fifteen or twenty meters.The main left tributaries - is Novita, Beaver and Birch, and the right - Tiislin, Stuart Palley, Milozitna, Klondike, Nadvizik and others.Since the second half of October until the beginning of May, during the last ice standing.In all the remaining time, the river is navigable.Ships can go into it to Whitehorse rapids at a distance amounts to about 3200 km from the delta.
River inhabitants
Due to the prevalence of low temperatures, the vegetation in the basin is not very diverse.The most developed fishing with the locals for centuries was fishing.The situation has not changed today.The fact that the Yukon River is a place where for a huge number of spawning salmon swims.Besides him are found in its waters, and other valuable species of fish, including whitefish, pike, grayling and white salmon.As of today, fishing officially authorized in the Yukon.The cost of annual licenses for its implementation is 35 Canadian dollars.It does not apply to the local Aboriginal people, who have the right to a life free fishing in these waters.As for the fauna, at the banks of the river inhabited by beavers, black bears, bighorn sheep and foxes.
Gold Rush
Since the late nineteenth century, the Yukon River in North America gained world fame.The fact that in 1896 in the area of leakage was detected three miners first gold.A year later, here in San Francisco we were brought several tons of this mineral.After that, there was a massive buzz and thousands of fortune hunters rushed to the Yukon and Klondike rivers in search of a quick profit.These people became the founders of most of the surviving towns and villages.Many of them have very quickly enriched.At the same time, there were those who disappeared forever in the snowy cold desert.At the end of the nineteenth century golden sand reserves are exhausted, and the excitement is over.In addition, gold in 1899 was found to Seward, so the overwhelming majority of prospectors moved there.All that remained of the fever - it is only memory and steamship line in the Yukon.
