NOVEJIBEE 18, 1898 ] 



SCIENCE. 



701 



doubt change the channel itself in places. 

 It appears that no feasible channel exists in 

 the Kusilvak mouth for vessels of over ten 

 feet draught. 



Magnetic and gravity determinations 

 ■were also made by the party while at St. 

 Michael. The party eft the Yukon delta 

 and returned to St. Michael on September 

 13th, in oruer to haul out the vessels before 

 the freezing up of the river, which occurs 

 some time in the latter part of September. 



The astronomical observations were ob- 

 tained only after long waiting because of 

 the continued cloudy weather, while the 

 frequent storms of wind and rain interfered 

 much with the other work in hand. 



The hundreds of square miles of mud 

 lying between high and low water of the 

 delta, which was found navigable for neither 

 boats nor boots, presented a problem not 

 usually encountered in surveying. After 

 the low grass flat which lies above the 

 ordinary high water of the delta was finally 

 reached, the surveyors were greeted by 

 myriads of mosquitoes, whose vexatious as- 

 saults are the crowning difficulty to be en- 

 countered in charting the Alaskan coasts. 



Another Coast Survey party charged with 

 the topographic reconnaissance of the head- 

 waters and passes of the Lynn Canal, 

 Alaska, arrived at Haines' Mission on May 

 7th, where the party separated, one part 

 going up the Chilkat Eiver and the other 

 taking up the work in the Khatschin Val- 

 ley. Each party was composed of a chief 

 and five men. 



The rivers forming the head waters of 

 Lynn Canal have very swift currents and 

 they were ascended under great difliculty 

 and with much loss of time, as the loaded 

 boats had to be tracked the entire distance, 

 the men generally wading in the ice-cold 

 water, overhanging alders precluding shore- 

 tracking, excepting such stretches where 

 gravel and sand-bars are deposited along 

 the river shores. The water level fluctuates 



with the weather, rising rapidly after a day 

 or two of clear weather, when the snow and 

 ice of the adjoining mountains undergo a 

 rapid melting. The main channels of these 

 rivers change with every freshet, new bars 

 being formed while old ones are washed 

 away. This fact, together with numerous 

 snags scattered about between islands and 

 on sand bars, makes navigation, even with 

 small boats, diflicult and risky. The 

 Khatschin partj^, while descending that 

 river in June, lost one boat and a part of 

 the outfit and records by being wrecked on 

 a snag, the men barely escaping with their 

 lives. 



The parties suffered little from rainy 

 weather, but the fogs and mists rarely left 

 the higher altitudes for more than a day at 

 a time, hiding from view the mountains 

 which were to be located cartographically. 

 Owing to the small number of clear 

 days that are generally met with in the 

 mountains of this region, it had been de- 

 cided to use the photo- topographic survey- 

 ing method, as it had given good results for 

 the topographic reconnaissance of south- 

 eastern Alaska made under the direction of 

 the Alaskan Boundary Commission. 



Both parties were supplied with plane- 

 tables for mapping the valleys and photo- 

 topographic outfits. They have returned 

 with instrumental and photographic rec- 

 ords, which, when mapped, will cover an 

 area of about 500 square miles, distributed 

 over the valleys of the Chilkat, Tsicku, 

 Tlahini, Khatschin, Skagway and Dyea 

 Elvers, including the tributaries near their 

 heads. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 

 The Chemical News contains a paper by 

 Eobert Meldrum on the action of water 

 and saline solutions on metallic iron. In 

 each experiment six feet of piano wire were 

 exposed in the solutions in a four-ounce 

 bottle. In many of the experiments with 



