REPORT OV THE SECRETARY. 17 



miles from its mouth, iis a small falls of some 25 feet perpendicnlar, 

 affording one of the most picturesque scenes I ever viewed. On an- 

 other occasion I visited Whale Eiver, to the east of the Koksoak about 

 50 miles, and on this trip j)assed the mouth of 'False' Eiver, so named 

 because it is nothing but a cul de sac of about 40 miles length and run- 

 ning nearly parallel with the Koksoak. The tides exert such influence 

 on these rivers that navigation is extremely dangerous. The rise and 

 fall of the tides at the mouth of the Koksoak were determined by me 

 to be sixty-two feet and three inches. 



" On the 4th of September, 1884, I left Fort Ohimo, Ungava, on the 

 Hudson Bay Company's steamer ' Labrador,' to return to civilization. 

 We stopped for ten days at George's Eiver, Ungava district, to re es- 

 tablish a trading station there for the Hudson's Bay Company, leaving 

 there on the 14th for Nakvak, Labrador, where we arrived on the 16th, 

 and lelt next day for Davis Inlet, where we arrived on the 19th and re- 

 mained until the 23d. We then started for Eigolet, Labrador, and ar- 

 rived there on the 25th, and left next day on the Newfoundland mail 

 steamer 'Hercules' for Battle Harbor, Labrador, where we arrived 

 October 1, leaving next day for St. John's, Newfoundland, on the 

 mail steamer 'Plover,' where we arrived October 6. While on these 

 two mail steamers we stopped at over one hundred lishing stations 

 along the Labrador and Newfoundland coast to call for and deliver 

 mail. On the 16th I left St. John's for Halifax, where I arrived on the 

 18th, and took railway for Montreal, and arrived there on the 21st, and 

 left next day for Washington, where I arrived on the 23d. My leisure 

 time was employed at every locality visited, in collecting specimens of 

 natural history. The results are given approximately as below in round 

 numbers : 



"Of birds, 1,800 specimens; eggs, 1,800 specimens; fishes, 1,000 speci- 

 mens; mammals, 200 specimens; ethnological, 600 articles; plants, a 

 great number; insects, over 200,000; geological specimens, a great 

 variety ; Eskimo linguistics, over 500 pages of manuscript, embracing 

 thousands of words and over 800 sentences, which were obtained dur- 

 ing the winter nights and at other times when outdoor work could not 

 be done. 



" To this should be added twenty-three months of continuous meteoro- 

 logical observations, taken and recorded at Fort Chimo, Ungava, which 

 have been already turned over to the Chief Signal Officer, United States 

 Army. 



"To enable me to successfully prosecute these labors, I was by the 

 characteristic liberality of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 

 abundantly supplied with all necessary articles for procuring, preserv- 

 ing, and transmitting the results," 



Eeference was made in a preceding report to the work accomplished 

 by Dr. C. Hart Merriam in the investigation of the natural history of 

 the seals of the coast of Labrador. The arrangements made by Dr. 

 Merriam during his abode in Newfoundland and Labrador have fur- 

 nished him additional material during the present year, the results of 

 which he has kindly shared with the National Museum in the way of 

 skins and skeletons of several species of seals. 



Arctic Coast. — Although we are unable to record quite so large ac- 

 quisitions from the Arctic coast as were obtained in the year 1882 from 

 S. Mis. 33- 2 



