ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 33 



On going up the Toukon they are nqt found until after passing the great bend 

 at Nulato. Towards the mountains eastward from Fort Youkon, the mountain 

 goat is found ; besides which there are found throughout the Territory the 

 black, red and brown bear ; the black, red, gray, blue and white fox ; the mink, 

 otter, martin, muskrat, Arctic hare and Arctic rabbit. Ermine are scarce. 

 Esquimaux dogs, are used to draw sleds. 



BIRDS. ' 



Aquatic fowl are common on the coast, and some of them go up the rivers, 

 marking different zones. In spring there is always a great accession of water 

 fowl. The land birds are chiefly summer birds, but there are some species that 

 remain during the winter, as the pine grosbeak, the red-poll, woodpeckers and 

 crows. There are three kinds of grouse, the black, white and gray, and vari- 

 ous hawks, which remain in the winter. Ducks and geese are innumerable 

 along the Alaskan Coast, but they are never seen flying northward of the main 

 land. Butterflies are very plentiful, and many of the species found in the 

 Atlantic States are common. 



A VAST AREA OF AZOIC ROCKS. 



With the exception of the coast south of the great snowy range, and a basin 

 of which the Koyoukuk Mountain may be called the center, the entire Territory 

 of Alaska is azoic; the rocks exhibiting no fossils, — being chiefly crystalline 

 schists coptaining a great deal of quartz. Granite is a very rare rock. It was 

 observed only in one place, at the mouth of the Tanana, and there it contained 

 mica, which was the only mica found in the country. 



The snowy mountains near the Arctic Ocean are probably azoic, as the 

 streams coming down from that direction into the Toukon were well searched 

 for pebbles, and nothing but the crystalline azoic rocks could be discovered. 



Volcanic rocks take a pretty important position in the geology of Alaska, 

 the great snowy ridge being itself a volcanic outburst, and having numerous 

 craters and volcanoes that are active and constantly smoking. The line of vol- 

 canic action extends out into the Pacific, forming the middle or backbone of 

 the peninsula of Alaska, and the Aleutian chain of islands ; being a link in the 

 great circle of volcanic activity which Humboldt traced around the entire con- 

 fines of the Pacific Ocean. Most of the northerly islands, or at least their 

 foundations, are composed of true volcanic lava, as is also the coast between the 

 Youkon and along Norton Sound. In many places it assumes a rude columnar 

 form, resembling the rocks of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, as at the beach 

 near Fort St .Michael. The islands of St. Paul's and St. George's in Behring's 

 Sea are composed, of amygdaloid lava which separates into six-sided columns of 

 a basaltic character, but having the appearance of being very much crooked. 

 They have frequent earthquakes in that country. Though nothing has been 

 reported quite so terrible as the memorable convulsions of St. Thomas, the 

 waters in the southern harbor of Ounga Island became excited in the midst of 

 an earthquake on the fifteenth of May last, and suddenly diminished from a 

 depth of twenty-four feet to four feet, in part of the harbor; the bottom re- 

 maining at the latter position permanently. Perhaps owing to similar causes, 



Peoc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Vol. IV.— 3 Jan., 1869. 



