VOL. III.] Proceedings of Societies. 87 



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 Linnaeus. 



Walbaum, a compiler of natural history, affixed scientific names 

 to these salmon and trout in a 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 ot the Russian Govern- 

 ment, named Pallas, printed in 181 1 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 ot 

 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 



