340 SCIENCE IN Rupert's land. 



in a state of nature ; and its President accordingly remarks on this 

 department of investigation : — 



" With the Indian tribes and all their ramifications and subdivi- 

 sions, we shall invite discussion on Ethnology ; with the diversified 

 tongues and dialects which these tribes speak, philology and com- 

 parative grammar will claim attention ; whilst with the vast and 

 varied surface of the continent, and its only partially explored northern 

 boundary, physical geography will naturally prove a subject of ab- 

 sorbing interest to all." 



The Institute of Rupert's Land, thus happily inaugurated, includes 

 among its mentibers and correspondents educated men both of the 

 resident clergy, and the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, sta- 

 tioned at many important points over the vast country ranging from 

 the Pacific to Lake Superior and towards the Arctic Sea. A great 

 and still unexplored field invites their labours ; and there is no de- 

 partment of science which may not be largely benefited by their com- 

 bined exertions. There is also another class of labourers, to whom 

 science already owes much, and from whose wisely directed co-opera- 

 tion more may be anticipated. "Missionaries," says a recent Chris- 

 tian reviewer, " ought to be the pioneers and promoters of science, 

 hand in hand with the Gospel, throughout the world. In fact they 

 have been so. And we believe it will be found on close inquiry, that 

 the most efficient labourers in the purely spiritual field, have been on 

 the whole, or on the average of numbers, those who also have done 

 most to shed a brilliant lustre upon the missionary character and 

 name in the fields of natural and scientific inquiries and studies." 



An interesting illustration of what may be looked for from this 

 class of labourers is furnished by a communication fi'om the Rev. 

 W. W. Kirkby, a missionary of the Church of England, transmitted 

 by Mr. Ross to the New Institute of the North "West, from which 

 some extracts will be found to embody observations of considerable 

 value. 



The river Youcon is the most westerly of the great rivers emptying 

 into the Arctic Ocean. It rises in the Hudson's Bay Territory, but its 

 principal course is through Russian America, where, after receiving 

 the waters of the Porcupine River, it unites with the Colville, and 

 flows nearly due north in longitude 150'' W. into the Arctic Ocean. 

 To a portion of the region drained by this great water system, Mr. 

 Kirkby recently directed his attention, and thus details some of the 



