Document 33: Letter from William Ballou, Rampart City, Alaska, Summer 1898
William B. Ballou Papers, Letters 1898-1918, Box 1-2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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[It] would seem as though the land itself, drained by the river on either side within Alaska, were a sponge, into which all rain and moisture from the heavens and melting snow are absorbed, never finding their release by evaporation, but conserved to drain, by myriads and myriads of rivulets, [into] the great watery highway of the Yukon.
—William Ballou, describing journey up Yukon from St. Michael's to Rampart City, Alaska, summer, 1898.