30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



easily seize upon and destroy a swimming man with whom he might 

 come in contact. The Doctor gave a long and interesting descrip- 

 tion of the animal, which measured eleven feet between the tips 

 of the arms. 



]Mr. White described a similar specimen, caught some years 

 since at Victoria, Vancouver's Island, the arms of which were as 

 thick as a man's leg, and fourteen feet in length, which would 

 make it about thirtj'- feet between the tips of the arms. 



Regular Meeting, October 5th, 1868. 

 President in the Chair. 



Fourteen members present. 



Mr. W. H. Dall, who had just arrived from Alaska, being pres- 

 ent, the regular proceedings of the Academy were postponed in 

 order to listen to an account of his explorations in that country. 

 Mr. Dall has resided there during the last two years, and has 

 been engaged in studying the geography, geology, climatology, 

 natural history and ethnology of the country ; he and his companion 

 were the first white men that ever penetrated some of the interior 

 regions. The Academy is indebted to the Miyiing and Scientific 

 Press for the following report of Mr. Dall's remarks, and also for 

 the wood-cut illustrating them : 



'Vo distinguish this far northwestern coantry from Sitka — a thousand miles 

 nearer to us and on the southern side of the mountains formins: the back bone 

 of Alaska — it is named, after the great river which flows through it, the You- 

 kon Territory. 



The line of explorations carried on was, especially from the mouth of the 

 Youkon to the junction of that river with the Porcupine ; the coast from its 

 mouth to seventy-five miles north of St. Michael's and thence to the Youkon, 

 a(yoss a portage of perhaps seventy-five miles, more or less, in length. Algp, 

 as careful an examination as possible was made of the various sloughs or divis- 

 ions of the river itself; particularly one, a slough of fifty miles in length, called 

 the Shageluk Slough. 



GEOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. 



In an article on the geography of Youkon Territory it is first necessary to 

 correct a few very old and flagrant errors. 1st. In most atlases we find a large 

 river, named the Colville, emptying into the Arctic Ocean. This is an error. 



