June 3, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



859 



evening was principally devoted to a paper by 

 Dr. Arthur Hollick, of the New York Botan- 

 ical Garden, entitled ' A Canoe Trip down the 

 Yukon Eiver from Dawson to Anvik.' 



Dr. Hollick said in brief: The trip was 

 made under instructions from the United 

 States Geological Survey, with the special ob- 

 ject of collecting paleobotanical material, 

 from which to determine the age of certain 

 exposures in central Alaska. 



The party consisted of Dr. Hollick, Mr. 

 Sidney Paige, field assistant, and Mr. John 

 Eentfro, cook and general camp assistant. 

 The start was made from Seattle, Wash., on 

 June 1, 1903, by steamer to Skagway, Alaska, 

 where they arrived on June 5 and remained 

 until June 11, waiting for the ice to break 

 up in the Yukon River. On June 11 the 

 route was by railroad to Whitehorse, Yukon 

 Territory; June 12-15, by steamboat down the 

 upper waters of the Yukon to Dawson, Yukon 

 Territory, where a nineteen-foot Peterborough 

 canoe was purchased and the trip down the 

 river begun. The trip was ended at Anvik, 

 Alaska, August 12, after about 1,100 miles 

 of the river had been explored and about 1,800 

 pounds of specimens had been collected and 

 shipped. • The highest point north was 

 reached at Fort Yukon, July 2, just beyond 

 the Arctic circle. 



The Yukon River occupies what was until 

 quite recently a broad estuary. Subsequent 

 elevation of the land resulted in the draining 

 of the estuary and the formation of the pres- 

 ent river valley, which has cut its way down 

 through the estuary deposits, leaving these 

 as broad benches or terraces. Mastodon and 

 other remains of extinct animals indicate the 

 Pleistocene age of the deposits. One of the 

 finest exposures is at the ' Palisades,' just be- 

 low Rampart. 



The width of the river varies from one to 

 ten miles, and the main channel is constantly 

 shifting. It pursues a meandering course, 

 • sometimes impinging on one side of the old 

 valley, sometimes on the other; but for long 

 distances it flows through the middle. Where 

 it occupies the latter position, it is generally 

 broad, with a current of about four miles per 

 hour, and filled with innumerable wooded 



islands, mud flats and sand and gravel bars, 

 which render navigation more or less a matter 

 of guesswork, on account of the impossibility 

 of telling where the main channel may be and 

 the liability of running into a blind slue or ' 

 long circuitous channel around an island. It 

 was often found advisable to climb up the 

 river bank to a considerable elevation in order 

 to determine, by means of an extended view, 

 where the correct course lay. Where hard 

 rocks were exposed along the river banks, or 

 a short distance away, these were subjected to 

 careful examination in regard to their litho- 

 logic, paleontologic and stratigraphic char- 

 acters. 



Amongst the interesting results obtained 

 were : (1) the determination of the Tertiary 

 age of certain sandstones above Rampart; and 

 (2) the determination of the Cretaceous age 

 of other sandstones and shales further down 

 the river in the vicinity of ISTulato. At one 

 locality, a unique fossil flora was found, to- 

 tally different from any heretofore known in 

 America, consisting of cycads of Lower Cre- 

 taceous types, mixed with angiosperms belong- 

 ing to what have always been considered Upper 

 Cretaceous types. 



Only a preliminary study has been made of 

 the material collected, which will eventually 

 be carefully examined and reported upon for 

 the United States Geological Survey. 



The paper was illustrated with about seventy 

 lantern slides, showing the principal topo- 

 graphic and geologic features of the route. 



The Grand Soufriere of Guadeloupe, an Ana- 

 logue of Mont Pele: Edmund Otis Hovey. 

 Dr. Hovey showed twelve lantern slides il- 

 lustrating the Grand Soufriere of Guadeloupe, 

 and stated that the field evidence indicated 

 that the present active cone of this volcano 

 was closely analogous to the new cone and 

 spine of Mont Pele, Martinique, that is to 

 say that it had been pushed up bodily into its 

 present position, or had welled up through the 

 conduit in such a viscous condition that con- 

 tact with the atmosphere rendered it too rigid 

 to flow. At the base of the cone on the north 

 there is a gently rising flat area, apparently 

 the segment of a circle indicating the position 



