REVIEWS. 489 



her to partake. Yehl saw that only a grandson of the old chief could 

 obtain the light, and in the form of a blade of grass he was swallowed, 

 and made his nest appearance in that character, and was soon beloved 

 even more than his mother. Once Yehl commenced weeping and 

 nothing would appease him but the boxes in which the luminaries 

 were kept. After a long siege of crying the grandf.ither gave him one 

 of the boxes to pacify him, and he went out of the house playing with 

 it. Seeing he was not observed, he opened the box, and lo ! there 

 were stars in the sky. G-reat were the lamentations of the old man 

 over the loss of his treasure, but he loved his grandson too well to 

 scold him, and actually permitted himself to be cheated out of the 

 moon in the same way. But with the box containing the sun he was 

 more careful, and only after refusing food, and making himself sick, 

 did Yehl succeed in imposing on the affectionate old man. That was 

 finally given to him, with the strict injunction not to open it. But, 

 turning himself into a raven, he liew away with it, and on opening the 

 box light shone on the earth as it does now. But the people astonish- 

 ed by the unwonted glare, ran off into the mountains, woods, and even 

 into the water, becoming animals or fish." 



To this same creative power, Yehl, is ascribed the great gift of fire, 

 which he is said to have brought from an island in the Ocean. But 

 we have produced enough to show the value of the volume as a contri- 

 bution to ethnology. The comparative philologist will find fresh 

 materials for study in the classified vocabularies of various tribes; and 

 the naturalist is furnished with copious lists of mammalia, marine and 

 fresh-water fishes, birds, insects, and plants, many of them new to 

 science. Last of all, the practical reader will find attractions suited to 

 his tastes in its details of the geology and mineral resources of the 

 region ; of its fishery and fur trade ; its hides, oil, and walrus ivory, 

 with other marketable materials, such as the whiskers of the sea-lion — 

 as large as a quill, and sometimes fifteen inches long, — which are trans- 

 ported to China, and there find a ready sale : the Chinese paying a 

 high price for them to use as toothpicks. 



But we have said enough to commend the book to all readers capa- 

 ble of appreciating its additions to our knowledge in various departments 

 of the wide field thrown open to the well-trained eye of a competent 

 observer entrusted with the 'scientific exploration of new regions. Its 

 author is now engaged as one of the staff of the Smithsonian Institution 

 at Washington, and will no doubt invite our attention hereafter by other 

 contributions in his favourite branches of study. D. W. 



