VOL. I11.] Proceedings of Societies. OT 
He published an account of the salmon of Alaska, describing five 
species in all, under Russian names. These five species still stand, 
+ and nothing new has since been added to our knowledge of the 
‘salmon of the coast. He also studied the trout and his conclusions 
have proved in general correct. Indeed, there has not since that 
time been a stronger man on this coast, and every ichthyologist must 
do honor to the ability of a man who was able to follow out all the 
complicated species of salmon and trout, before the time of Linnzeus. 
Walbaum, a compiler of natural history, affixed scientific names 
to these salmon and trout ina work published in 1792, and his name 
is accordingly cited as authority for the species which Steller dis- 
~- covered and described. 
Another naturalist in the employment of the Russian Govern- - 
ment, named Pallas, printed in 1811 an account of his explorations 
in the same country that Steller had visited, but his work was ap- 
parently not very highly appreciated at the time, for it was not dis- 
tributed until twenty years later. Pallas’ trip across Siberia was 
notable for the discovery of the mastodon in the ice. His work 
was carefully done, consisting largely in authenticating by repetition 
the work of Steller, although he also discovered many new species 
in Alaska. 
The above period may be considered as constituting the prehis- 
‘toric epoch in the history of Pacific Coast explorations. In the 
second stage may be mentioned the work of Gairdner and Kittlitz. 
About the year 1830 Dr. Gairdner, a physician living in Astoria, 
collected many fish, especially salmon and trout, which he sent to 
Sir John Richardson to be described in his classic Fauna Boreali 
Americana. At about the same time an unknown German named 
Kittlitz recorded a single new species of fish. 
In 1849 the modern history of California began, and with the host 
of emigrants that flocked to the Pacific Coast came a number of 
men interested in natural history. In the year 1852 a number ot 
papers appeared on science, the most extensive and spirited writing 
being done by Dr. W. O. Ayres. His papers, as was customary 
at the time, were first presented to the California Academy of 
Sciences, appearing on the following morning in the Daily Placer 
Times. These papers have since been reprinted in the regular Pro- 
ceedings of the Academy. Dr. Ayres described a considerable 
number of new species of fish from the coast in a very creditable 
