1850 TO 1865 377 



The Smithsonian is as desirous as ever of getting more material 

 from the North in all departments of natural history. 



Prof. Baird has to most of you discussed the natural history 

 question pretty extensively, though probably he has talked birds and 

 eggs chiefly. 



But as I'm full to overflowing with Arctic zoological ideas I must 

 write you on this head as well. 



I will defer writing about summer collecting till next packet, 

 though I enclose some memoranda about summer birds, eggs, etc. 



Probably the greatest field for discoveries in North American 

 zoology is in the fishes. Except the very few that I sent out from 

 Slave Lake and Fort Simpson and the few that you gentlemen of 

 the River District have collected we know nothing of Arctic Ichthy- 

 ology beyond what Richardson tells us. All of my Yukon and lower 

 Mackenzie alcoholic collections were lost at The Portage. Clarke 

 found them last summer and sent them on but they have never ap- 

 peared and I fear are now gone forever. 



There is an immense field open for discovery to you, and I would 

 by all means advise you to cultivate it diligently. . . . 



Hurrah for the Chicago Museum and you working in it ! ! 



Yours always, 



KENNICOTT. 



On the iQth of March Kennicott and his party arrived 

 in New York on their way to Russian America (now 

 Alaska) via the Nicaragua route to California. His com- 

 panions were J. T. Rothrock, W. H. Dall, H. M. Bannister, 

 G. W. Maynard, Charles Pease, H. W. Elliott, and 

 Ferdinand Bischoff, a German taxidermist. 33 In the course 

 of events the party was scattered, some going to British 

 Columbia, Kennicott, Bannister, Pease and Dall to the 

 Yukon; while Bischoff, being ill, was left at Sitka. The 



33 Some years later Bischoff, while on a collecting tour in New 

 Mexico, wandered off into the desert and was never heard of again. 



