INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



I was taken on board the United States steamer Cor win at St. Paul's Island, Bering Sea. 

 on June 31. 1885. and twelve days later (on July 2) was landed at Kotzebue Sound with a party 

 in charge of Lieut. J. C. Cantwell, to explore the Kowak River, which is immediately north 

 of and almost parallel with the Arctic circle in Northern Alaska. 



I had been at St. Paul's nearly three weeks, having been sent to Alaska by the United 

 States Commissioner of Fisheries to gather certain data respecting seals, cetaceans, the fish- 

 eries, &c., which I reserve for publication elsewhere. I had arrived there by the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company's steamer St. Paul. The opportunity of accompanying the Conriii, afforded 

 through the courtesy of Captain Healy. was one which I gladly availed myself of. as it enabled 

 me to visit a remote and usually inaccessible region. 



The Corwin called at St. Michael's, Golovin Bay, Port Clarence, and Cape Prince of Wales 

 on her way to the Arctic, and laboriously pushed her way for many hours through drift-ice to 

 enter Kotzebue Sound. 



Our party, consisting of Lieutenant Cantwell. William Marsh, and Frederic Lewis, sea- 

 men from the Corwin, myself, and Myninck, the interpreter, remained on the Kowak River 

 nearly two months— from July 2 until August 25— during which time I obtahied as many 

 zoological specimens as our limited facilities and peculiar surroundings permitted. The object 

 of the trip— the exploration and discovery of the source of the river— was accomplished. 



Returning southward in the fall, in addition to calling again at those places visited on the 

 northward trip, the vessel made stops at ScliismarefE Inlet, in the Arctic Ocean, and at Hall's 

 Island, in Bering Sea, at all of which natural history specimens were obtained in greater or 

 less numbers. 



The Corwin landed me at St. Paul's Island on September 10, where I remained a montli 

 before taking the homeward-bouud vessel of the Alaska Commercial Company. A delay of 

 nearly two weeks at Ounalaska was productive of much interesting ornithological material. 

 The steamer Dora arrived at San Francisco on November 8. 



I must express my indebtedness to the Alaska Commercial Company of San Francisco, 

 and to Capt. M. A. Healy. United States Revenue Marine, for the facilities I enjoyed in my 

 work in Alaska. I received courteous treatment at the hands of the officers and agents of the 

 company, as well as the officers of the Corwin. Lieutenant Cantwell was always ready to aid 

 me while on the Kowak River. IMr. Ridgway. of tlie Smithsonian Institiition. kindly gave 

 me the beautiful plate representing Plecfropliena.v Iii/iierbnreus. Mr. L. M. Turner revised 

 my spelling of Eskimo Ijird names according to the rules laid down iu Professor Powell's 

 Guide to the Study of Indian Languages; and Dr. George Vasey. botanist cit the Department 

 of Agriculture, identified the few plants that I was aT)le to colli^ct. 



A collection of flowering plants obtained on tlie Noatak River by Mr. McLenegan. and on 

 the Kowak by Mr. Cantwell and myself, has been mislaid or lost, as it never reached Wash- 

 ington. Mr. McLenegan kindly gave me some notes on birds collected by him on the Lower 

 Kowak in 1884, but I have not used them, having decided to let the invsent paper stand as a 

 record of personal observations and collections. 



CHARLES H. TOWNSEND, 

 Assistant, United States Fish Commission. 



Smithsonian Institution. June 25, 1886. 



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