A NATURALIST'S ADVENTURES 



By DR. TARLETON H. BEAN 



Wednesday, August ii, 1880 



ORE of this exasperating Asiatic fog this 

 morning, and enough of the delectable 

 swell to remind us that this world is not 

 wholly a garden of roses. Up to break- 

 fast time we had made comparatively little 

 headway toward Plover Bay, owing to 

 light wind and strong head sea. This 



same light wind and head sea continued all the way and 



we did not reach our anchorage in Port Providence, 



Plover Bay, Siberia, until 10 P. M. 



Near the entrance of Plover Bay we met the cutter 



Corwin coming out from a coaling trip. She bore toward 



[In 1880 the writer was sent to Alaska by Professor Spencer F. Baird, 

 to collect natural history materials for the United States National 

 Museum. By permission of the Superintendent of the United States 

 Coast Survey, and at the invitation of Dr. W. H. Dall, who com- 

 manded the expedition, I joined the party in the schooner "Yukon," 

 and made the long voyage from San Francisco to Wainwright Inlet 

 and return. During the cruise we collected avast amount of valuable 

 articles and information which have been utilized in various publica- 

 tions. Among the collections which concerned me most were 

 seventy-seven species of birds, eighty-four species of fishes, and one 

 hundred and ten species of lichens, which became the subjects of 

 papers in the Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 

 volumes IV, V, and VII, and in Section I of the Fisheries and 

 Fishery Industries of the United States. The spoon-billed sandpiper 

 was the most valuable bird secured, and the specimen brought by the 

 "Yukon" was the first in any American museum. Two other 

 species ofbirds were collected for the first time in Alaska. One new 

 species of lichens was obtained, and many of the fishes proved to be 

 unknown to science. 



The above extracts from my journal cover the voyage from 

 Port Providence, Plover Bay, Siberia, to Wainwright Inlet and 

 return.] 



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