302 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



south of Hamilton inlet, and 3 streams White 

 Bear, Eagle, and Paradise rivers connect it 

 with the interior. The bay was surveyed and 

 the 3 rivers explored. White Bear river was 

 the first that the explorers ascended, and 40 

 miles from its mouth falls 60 feet high were 

 discovered. This river had never before been 

 ascended by white men, and the same was true 

 of the Paradise. Prof. I lite describes the coun- 

 try along White Bear river as densely wooded 

 and very mountainous. Thick moss covered the 

 ground, and the undergrowth was almost im- 

 penetrable. Back from the coast the forest 

 growth would admit of cutting good lumber, if 

 there were any market for it. The country 

 along the Paradise is described as low and flat. 

 There are many large lakes in the interior, and 

 about 30 of these were surveyed, and collections 

 were made for the university museum. 



The country in the region of Lake Mistassini 

 appears, from reports of A. P. Low and those of 

 Archibald Stuart, who in 1893 and 1894 traveled 

 through hitherto unexplored portions of it, to 

 be much less barren than has been supposed. 

 Much of it is well wooded, and there are large 

 tracts of arable land. Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, of the 

 Geological Survey in Canada, made an examina- 

 tion of the Barren Grounds in the summer of 

 1893. He went in search of a river of which he 

 had heard from the Indians. It was, they said, 

 beyond the height of land, and took a north- 

 westerly course to Hudson Bay, as they supposed. 

 Starting from the east end of Athabasca lake, 

 Mr. Tyrrell's party ascended a small stream 

 named the Black river to Black lake, and fol- 

 lowed a tributary of that to its head ; there they 

 found a portage route to another stream, be- 

 lieved to be the one described by the Indians. 

 After a winding course of about 800 miles it 

 flows into the head of Chesterfield inlet. They 

 saw also a lake which they took to be the one 

 laid down on some maps as Dubaunt lake. 



R. G. McConnell, also of the Canadian Survey, 

 explored Finlay river, which in reality repre- 

 sents the main upper stream of Peace river to 

 the west of the Rocky mountains, the course of 

 which has not heretofore been known definitely. 

 It is now found to follow for about 150 miles 

 the line of the valley that everywhere appears 

 to lie to the west of the Rocky mountain range 

 proper. Farther up its main stream enters this 

 valley from the west, after having pursued a 

 circuitous route to the north from its source 

 through a very mountainous country. Its upper 

 course is very rapid. The Omineca district is 

 drained by a western branch of the Finlay. Gold 

 mining was actively carried on here for a short 

 time, but the impossibility of bringing in appli- 

 ances for the more difficult and poorer ground 

 has caused it to fall off. But it is believed that 

 placer mining may be made remunerative in the 

 future in the Finlay valley, while the quartz 

 ivd's have not yet been touched. 



Mr. J. McEvoy, in examining that part of 

 British Columbia east of the Alaska coast strip, 

 found the course of the Nasse river above tide 

 water to be quite different from that laid down 

 on the maps. A lava flow that has long been 

 reported to exist on the Nasse, and was said by 

 the local Indian tradition to be of comparatively 

 recent date, was examined and found to be not 



probably more than two hundred years old. The 

 river at one time was blocked by it, but has since 

 cut through, forming a small canon. 



It is announced that the discussion of the hori- 

 zontal and vertical angles taken by McGrath's 

 Zty in Yakutat Bay arid that vicinity show that 

 unt St. Elias is not the highest peak near the 

 Alaskan boundary. A group of three snowy 

 summits called Mount Logan appears from these 

 figures to be 19,534 feet high. Mount St. Elias 

 is now placed at 18,023, and Mount Orizaba at 

 about 18,300 feet. This makes Mount Logan the 

 highest summit in North America. Both Logan 

 and Elias are in British territory. 



During 1893 the United States Geological Sui 

 vey had 33 parties in the field, and 35,500 sqi 

 miles were surveyed. Most of the work was 

 done in the West, the greatest progress being 

 made in Nebraska, Oklahoma, North and South 

 Dakota, Kansas, and Texas. By co-operatiori of 

 the State legislatures with the General Govern- 

 ment, accurate surveys have been made of New 

 York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 

 and Rhode Island: 5,000 square miles of New 

 York were for the first time surveyed and mapped 

 on the scale of one mile to an inch. 



From statistics drawn by H. Gannett from the 

 report of the survey in regard to the average ele- 

 vation of the United States, it appears that the 

 average altitude of Delaware is 60 feet, that of 

 Louisiana and Florida 100, and that of Rhode 

 Island 200. Thirty-two States have a mean ele- 

 vation of 1,300 feet. Colorado has the highest 

 average, 6,800 feet ; the average of Wyoming is 

 6,700 ; of Utah, 6,100 : of New Mexico, 5,700 ; of 

 Nevada, 5,500; of Idaho, 5,000: of Arizona, 

 4,100; of Montana, 3,400; of Oregon, 3,300; of 

 California, 2,900; of Nebraska, 2,600. These 

 eleven are all whose average exceeds the general 

 average of the country, which is 2,500 feet. 

 These figures are of course not given as exact,, 

 but as deductions from the available statistics, 

 which were summarized in a map on which con- 

 tour lines were drawn at various altitudes. 



Much apprehension was caused in November 

 by the report of changes in Mount Rainier or 

 Tacoma, thus described : 



The mountain has lately been strangely trans- 

 formed. The crest of the great monarch of the Cas- 

 cades has changed, the cone having fallen in. and 

 steam can be seen rising from the crater. There, is 

 no eruption, it is believed by those most competent to 

 judge, but great masses of rock seem to have fallen. 



The snow-capped cone has disappeared, and a sharp- 

 pointed peak has risen in its place to the cast of tin- 

 crater. The changed appearance of the mountain is 

 evident from the streets of Seattle, 90 miles distant. 

 Very few people have ever ascended the mountain* 

 and at this season of the year the ascension is an alt- 

 solute impossibility. 



Prior to the present, century little curiosity 

 had been displayed as to the place where and 

 the manner in which the Mississippi river took 

 its rise. The French who came to these western 

 confines of New France were mostly satisfied to- 

 know that it issued from a marshy region in the 

 distant north, where were large lakes. After tin- 

 evacuation of the upper country by them, the 

 servants of the English fur companies gradually 

 extended their operations southward to what is 

 now northern Minnesota, and came to believe, or 



