FIELD NOTES ON THE LARGER MAMMALIA OF 

 THE STICKINE, DEASE, AND LIARD RIVERS, 

 N. W. BRITISH COLUMBIA.* 



BY A. J. STONE. 



I have the honor to lay before the Zoological Society the fol- 

 lowing field notes of my observations throughout the Stickine, 

 Dease, and Liard River basins, accompanied by two rough charts, 

 such as I could prepare in the heart of this great wilderness. 



A brief mention of the difficulties of travelling through this 

 great stretch of inland waste may not prove amiss. 



I left the Pacific coast by way of the Stickine River at Fort 

 Wrangel, Alaska, the first of July, 1897. P art °f m y travel up 

 the Stickine was by steamer and part by canoe. The end of canoe 

 navigation is 175 miles from salt water. Although the Stickine 

 carries a large volume of water, it is a swift and treacherous stream. 

 Nearly the whole of its basin is mountainous, and it is fed by many 

 large and important glaciers. The glacier region extends from 

 very near the coast as far inland as the crest of the main coast 

 range, though many smaller fields of ice continue to confront the 

 traveller throughout all the headwaters, much farther inland. 



The mountains throughout this region do not form into con- 

 tinuous ridges, but everywhere seem much broken and creviced, 



* Dated at Ft. Simpson, N.W.T. June 30, 1898. Abstract read at the 

 Annual Meeting of the Society on Jan. 10, 1899. 



Mr. Stone is in charge of an exploring expedition known as Recreation's 

 Northland Expedition, which for the past three years has been exploring 

 the least-known portions of the far northwest, under the auspices of Mr. 

 G. O. Shields' Recreation Magazine. The American Museum of Natural 

 History is also interested in the scientific results of the work. Mr. Stone's 

 first year in Alaska and British Columbia resulted in the discovery of a 

 strikingly handsome species of mountain sheep, new to science, which has 

 been described by Dr. J. A. Allen as Ovis stonei. Dr. Allen has recently- 

 described several new species of small mammals which were recently dis- 

 covered by Mr. Stone. 



