PAPERS PRESENTED AT GENERAL SESSIONS 51 



A COLLECTING TRIP TO ALASKA AND THE 

 CANADIAN NORTHWEST. 



Ruth Marshall, Rockford College. 



Alaska has many attractions for the traveler. Histor- 

 ically, it is one of the oldest parts of our country; its 

 people and their needs are almost unknown to the citizens 

 of the States ; it has great natural wealth in its minerals, 

 its forests and its fisheries; it is a land of surpassing 

 beauty, with its great glaciers, snow-capped mountains, 

 fiords, and vast meadows of brilliant wild flowers. This 

 great territory, in area one-fifth of the size of the States, 

 is a rich and little explored country for the naturalist. 

 From big game to the tiny beasts in the mountain pools, 

 in the dense forests of the mild and moist coast region 

 to the frozen treeless tundras of the north, there is a 

 great field for the collector. 



In the summer of 1922, I spent two months in an ex- 

 tended trip along the coast from Seattle to Kodiak Is- 

 land, a journey by boat of about two thousand miles. All 

 of the larger coast towns, and many of the cannery set- 

 tlements were visited. Stops were made in several 

 places, varying from one day to two weeks, and there 

 were short journeys inland on the three Alaskan railways. 

 My scientific interests lay chiefly in the life of the ponds 

 and lakes, especially those at high altitudes, where I 

 hoped to find water mites. In this quest I was reasonably 

 successful, considering the size of the territory and 

 the difficulties of transportation. Altho the material 

 obtained was not great in amount, the stations visited 

 were many and of a varied character. This part of 

 Alaska is rich in lakes. The coast towns, built very pic- 

 turesquely on the mountain sides, draw their water sup- 

 ply from snow-fed lakes which form natural reservoirs. 

 There are usually trails or roads to some bodies of water 

 at every stopping place. And so, provided with a Birge 

 collecting net, a knapsack and a camera, it was possible 

 to reach and study a goodly number of places. 



Five days by boat from Seattle lies Skagway, at the 

 end of the famous Inside Passage. Here I left the boat 

 for the train on the White Pass and Yukon Railway over 



