362 



NATURE 



\Feb. 14, I < 



interesting information as to the progress of the thirteen 

 topographical parties, the two Moiizaivar, or village 

 survey parties, and the six cadastral or field survey 

 parties, whose duties now include, as an experiment, the 

 reecording of particulars about each field ; thus reducing 

 the cost of preparing the '" Record of Rights" for the 

 Board of Revenue. The geographical reconnaissance 

 and trans Himalayan explorations are replete with curious 

 information to every student of nature, and of the habits 

 and customs of the frontier hill tribes and peoples. 

 The perusal of this report increases, if possible, our good 

 opinion of the skill and devotion to duty of the several 

 officers, and of the marked ability of the administration 

 of this department by General Walker, and which it is 

 most pleasing to find so handsomely acknowledged by 

 the Government of India. 



ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF ALASKA^ 



THE United States Revenue cutter Coriuiii went on a 

 cruise in 1 88 1 to Alaska and the Arctic Ocean. 

 The main object of the voyage was to search the 

 various accessible portions of the Arctic coasts for traces 

 of the Jeannette and two missing whaling vessels 

 which were lost the same season that the Jeannette 

 entered the ice. Leaving St. Michael's on June 21, 

 Behring's Sea was crossed to St. Lawrence Island 

 and Plover Bay on the Siberian coast ; then the 

 Cor-u'iii went along this coast through the Straits 

 and north-wc^t to the vicinity of Nordenskjold's winter 

 quarters, where a sledge party, which had been left there 

 earlier in the season to search the coast in that district, 

 was taken on board ; it then returned to St. Lawrence 

 Island and St. Michael's. After a short delay it again 

 proceeded to the Arctic, touching at all the islands in 

 Behring's Straits, visiting in succession the entire Alas- 

 kan coast line from Behring's Straits to Point Barrow, 

 including Kotzebue Sound, and on the Siberian shore 

 from the Straits to North Cape. It also cruised along 

 the edge of the ice paci;, visiting Herald and Wrangel 

 Islands— almost unknown masses of land — and, returning 

 homewards, some time was spent at Ounalaska in the 

 Aleutian Islands fitting for the voyage to San Francisco, 

 which was reached in October. 



As one of the re->ults of this cruise, we have a series of 

 notes and memoranda, medical and anthropological, 

 botanical and ornithological, published by order of the 

 House of Representatives at Washington. 



The medical and anthropological notes of Alaska are by 

 Dr. Irving C. Rosse. The health of the ship's crew was 

 fairly good throughout the voyage, very careful precau- 

 tionary measures being observed : for the usual habit of 

 deluging the decks above and below every morning with 

 w.iter, a system of serapmg and dry scrubbing was substi- 

 tuted with excellent results, and the decks were only 

 wetted once or twice a month on fine days. Good water 

 ■vras procured nearly everywhere in the Arctic, and it is 

 noted as of unusual excellence at Cape Thompson and at 

 Herald and Wrangel Islands. The weather was mostly 

 wild, with snow and hail ; in the latter part of June at 

 St. Michael's the sun was found almost overpowering, 

 although the thermometer registered but 60°. Dr. Rosse 

 gives a sketch of the diseases peculiar to the aboriginal 

 population, especially of an epidemic of pneumonia which 

 prevailed at tiunalaska. He declares " that there is an 

 absolute consensus of opinion both among the executive 

 and medical officers of late Arctic expeditions in regard 

 to the judicious use of alcoholic beverages," and that 

 though himself of abstemious habits, yet the facts ob- 

 served "warrant him in testifying to the undeniable good 

 effects of whisky when served out to the crew after 



■ ■• Cruise of the Revenue Sleanier Corzuin in Alaska and the North- 

 west Arctic Ocean in iSSi. Notes anj Memoranda. Medical and Antliro- 

 pological. Botanical and Ornithologicil. " (Washington: Government 

 Printing Office, 1883.) 



unusual fatigue and exposure." On reaching St. Lawrence 

 Bay, Siberia, a native speaking a little English was at 

 his own request taken on board ; the bustle and stir 

 brought on a state of sleeplessness, and his state of mind 

 was not improved on seeing the collection of skulls on 

 board, nor by the chaff of the forecastle men, who tried 

 to persuade him he was to be brought to San Francisco 

 as an anatomical curiosity. As a result he stabbed him- 

 self dangerously in the left chest, and then leaped over- 

 board ; a boat being alongside, he was promptly rescued. 

 The knife was found to have entered several inches, and 

 blood and air were escaping from the wound. The 

 symptoms were such that, writes Dr. Rosse, "the patient 

 ought to have promptly perished, notwithstanding the 

 treatment," but in a few days the patient was landed 

 at Plover Bay, where he recovered sufficiently to start on 

 foot for his home over a rugged mountain way 150 miles 

 distant. "Wounds seem to heal uncommonly well in the 

 Arctic, a fact doubtless owing to the highly ozonised con- 

 dition of the atmosphere, and the absence of disease 

 germs and organic dust." 



Dr. Rosse's anthropological notes on the natives met 

 with are of some importance, though his conclusions 

 based on these may not always be acceptable. Referring 

 to the prevalence of tattooing among the Esquimaux 

 women, he gives a figure of strange design seen on the 

 cheeks of a woman of St. Lawrence Island. Some drawings 

 of crania are given, but we have failed to find any detailed 

 account of them. 



The botanical notes on Alaska are by John Muir. 

 There is no line of perpetual snow on any portion of the 

 Arctic regions known to explorers. Every summer the 

 snow disappears not only from the low sandy shores and 

 boggy tundras, but also from the mountain tops ; for 

 nearly three-fourths of the year the plants lie buried under 

 it, but they awake up in June and July to a vigorous 

 growth, and on the drier banks and hills about Kotzebue 

 Sound, Cape Lisbourne, and elsewhere, many species 

 show but little climatic repression, growing during the 

 long summer's day tall enough to wave m the wind, and 

 to unfold a rich profusion of flowers. A list of the 

 species found at the following localities is given — St. 

 Michael's, Golovin Bay, Kotzebue Sound, and Cape 

 Thompson, where a new species of Erigeron was found 

 {E. mui?-ii. Gray). On Herald Island sixteen species of 

 flowering plants were gathered. At Wrangel Island, 

 from an area of about half a square mile, twenty-seven 

 species of flowering plants were collected ; they all 

 occurred in separate tufts, leaving the ground between 

 them bare and raw as that of a newly ploughed field. 

 Some portions of the coast, however, farther south, 

 presented a greenish hue, as seen from the ship, at a 

 distance of eight or ten miles, owing no doubt to vege- 

 tation growing under less unfavourable conditions than 

 at the point the Corivin touched at. 



The birds of Behring's Sea and the Arctic Ocean are 

 described by Mr. E. W. Nelson ; many of the breeding 

 quarters of North American birds are given, and details 

 are also added of some of the rarer forms met with. A 

 fine adult male Siberian Wagtail {Motacilla ocularis, 

 Swinhoe) was taken at Plover Bay the last day of June ; 

 it was in perfect breeding plumage. .A specimen of 

 Laniiis cristatus was picked up dead on Wrangel Island. 

 Strictly an Asiatic bird, it must have reached this distant 

 spot during some storm, and died of starvation or 

 exposure. A fine adult female, in breeding plumage, of 

 Enriiwrhyiichics pygniaus, was taken at Plover Bay, and 

 several others were seen. .A specimen of Khodostethia 

 rosea in immature plumage was obtained at St. IVlichael's, 

 and reference is made to three fine specimens secured by 

 Mr. Newcomb during the drift of \\\^ Jeannette. which 

 are now in the Smi'.hsonian collection, one of which still 

 retains its extremely rich peach-blossom pink so charac- 

 teristic of this the most beautiful of the gulls. 



