(Sialiforwia ^aAmwi 0* fatmat Mmm. 



Regular Meeting, October 15th, 1866. 

 Mr. Stearns read the following : 



It is my painful duty to inform the Academy of the decease of Robert 

 Kennicott. The meager information received furnishes no particulars, further 

 than that he died suddenly, in the month of May last, at Nulato Bay, in Rus- 

 sian America. 



The services rendered to science by Mr. Kennicott aVe worthy of something- 

 more than a passing notice. In the month of May, in the year 1859, we find 

 him starting upon a prolonged exploration of Russian America, under the 

 auspices of the Smithsonian Institute, assisted by the University of Michigan, 

 the Audubon Club of Chicago, and the Academy of Sciences of the same city. 

 This exploration, including also a portion of the territory held by the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, extended from May, 1859, to the date of his return in October, 

 1862. From the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institute we learn that 

 " the route traversed by Mr. Kennicott was from Lake Superior along the 

 Kamcnistiquoy River and Rainy and Winnipeg Lakes, up the Saskatchewan 

 River to Cumberland House ; thence nearly north to Fort Churchill, on English 

 River, up the latter to Methy portage, at which point he first reached the head 

 waters of the streams flowing into the Arctic ocean ; thence along the Clear 

 Water River and Athabasca Lake, down Peace River into Great Slave Lake, 

 and along the Mackenzie River to Fort Simpson. At this place Mr. Kennicott 

 spent a part of the first winter, making excursions up the Liard River to Fort 

 Liard in autumn, and again on snowshoes in January. Before the close of the 

 same winter he went up the Mackenzie to Big Island, and thence northwest to 

 Fort Rae, near the site of old Fort Providence. From this point he traveled 

 on the ice across Great Slave Lake to Fort Resolution, at the mouth of Peace 

 River, where he spent the summer of 1860. He next descended the Mackenzie 

 to Peel's River, and thence proceeded westward across the Rocky Mountains 

 and down the Porcupine River to the Youkon, in the vicinit; of which he 

 spent the winter of 1860-Gl and the summer of the latter year. Vhe winter of 



