January 10, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



'A\ 



classes — the precious furs, such as the fox, 

 sea otter and sable, which were strictly re- 

 served for the company, a certain proportion 

 being imperial perquisites of the Russian 

 court, and the cheaper sorts, which might 

 be used by the company's employees for 

 winter clothing, and were sold at a fixed 

 price to them for this purpose. This in- 

 cluded the muskrat, mink. Parry's marmot 

 or ivrashka, the fur seal and some others. 

 Dry skins of the fur seal were sold at the 

 company's warehouse for 12^ cents apiece, 

 the modern plucking and dyeing of the fur, 

 invented by an American, Raymond, of 

 Albany, not having reached a perfection 

 sufficient to attract the fashionable world. 



The European trading goods and supplies 

 were mainly brought by ship from Ham- 

 burg, the same vessel taking the annual 

 load of skins to China, where an exchange 

 was made for tea and silk, which were car- 

 ried back to Europe. Flour was imported 

 latterly from California and some goods 

 were brought from Aian and other ports on 

 the Okhotsk sea in the earlier days of the 

 business, but in 1865 this trade had come 

 to a standstill or nearly so. In mineral re- 

 sources almost nothing was done ; a little 

 coal was taken out at Cook's inlet for local 

 uses, and the exportation of ice from Ka- 

 diak to California was carried on under a 

 lease by an American company. The pres- 

 ence of gold, iron and graphite was known 

 to the authorities, but prospecting was not 

 encouraged, as it was supposed the develop- 

 ment of mineral resources might react un- 

 favorably on the fur trade. 



The first codfisherman visited the Shu- 

 magin Islands in 1865. The whale fishery 

 was wholly in the hands of Americans and 

 other foreigners, uncontrolled by the Rus- 

 sians, and the timber was used only for 

 local purposes. 



The main business of the company was 

 done at its continental trading posts in the 

 northern part of the territory and in the 



Aleutian chain; its authority in the terri- 

 tory was as absolute as the presence of the 

 uncivilized tribes would admit. Under the 

 guns of the trading posts the company was 

 master; out of their range every man was 

 a law unto himself. 



After transacting its business at Sitka, 

 the expedition touched at the island of 

 Unga to examine a coal mine, at Una- 

 lashka, the Pribiloff Islands, and at Saint 

 Michael's, Norton Sound, where Kennicott 

 and the explorers for the Yukon were 

 landed. The speaker was put in charge of 

 the scientific work of the expedition and 

 remained with the fleet, visiting Bering 

 Strait, where landing places for the cable 

 were searched for ; and Petropavlovsk, the 

 capital of Kamchatka, where the Siberian 

 parties were provided for; and then the 

 vessels returned to San Francisco. 



The following j^ear, on returning to Saint 

 Michael's, we were met by the news of Ken- 

 nicott's death from heart disease, brought^ 

 on by over-exertion and anxiety. The Yu- 

 kon exploration was still incomplete, though 

 information received made it certain ,that 

 the Kwikhpak of the Russians and the 

 Yukon and Pelly of the English were one 

 and the same river. It remained to em- 

 phasize this information by a continuous 

 exploration which should cover the unmap- 

 ped portion of this mighty stream. The sci- 

 entific work in zoology projected by Kenni- 

 cott had been left by his premature death 

 unrealized. The speaker determined to 

 carry out these plans and was authorized 

 to remain in the country for that purpose. 



As soon as sufficient snow had fallen to 

 render sledging practicable a portage from 

 Norton sound to the Yukon river was trav- 

 ersed, a small boat transported on a sledge 

 for use during the following summer, and 

 the Yukon ascended on the ice to the trad- 

 ing post at Nulato, a distance of some three 

 hundred miles. Here the party of five 

 wintered and in March divided into two 



