376 Canadian Record of Science. 



"Mr. Arthur Krause further called the attention of Prof. 

 Arzruni, to another passage on a rough mineral in North 

 America, — respecting which, it indeed remains to ascertain 

 whether the mineral is really nephrite. In Sir John 

 Eichardson's work, published in 1851, 'Arctic searching 

 Expedition,' we read (Yol. I., p. 312) : ' At a cascade in Rae 

 River, ten miles above its mouth, walls from eight to twenty 

 feet high, of bluish-grey quartz-rock, in thin layers, hem in 



the stream At this place, Mr. Rae discovered 



(1849) among the limestone and quartz-rock, layers of 

 asparagus-stone or apatite, thin beds of soap-stone and some 

 nephrite — or jade — a group of minerals which belong to 

 primitive formations.' The Rae River empties into Coro- 

 nation Gulf, about 115° W. longitude, and 61%° K latitude, 

 and the Mackenzie River, the nephrite borer from which 

 Prof. Fischer would not acknowledge to be of American 

 origin (see above), flows half-way between the gulf just 

 named and Cape Barrow. 



" Mr. Yirchow has lately (Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 

 1883, p. 482) endeavoured to contest the belief as to the 

 occurrence of nephrite in Alaska as follows : ' Nothing 

 could be more natural than that even Mexico and Cen- 

 tral America should have been provided from the north- 

 west coast, and there would be nothing surprising if, after 

 the nephrite question has been seemingly altogether set at 

 rest for America, the old way of the Toltecs were again 

 suddenly proved to be the commercial path of nephrite.' 

 Herewith the transportation hypothesis which has fortuna- 

 tely been set aside as to commercial intercourse from con- 

 tinent to continent, is again taken up by Mr. Yirchow, in 

 reference to inter-regional trading in America, a view 

 against which I not only entertain the gravest doubts, but 

 hold to be undefensible, for it will be found there are in 

 America quite as many different localities yielding nephrite 

 (and jadeite) as have already been recognized for Asia and 

 for Europe. I propose shortly to develop the last point. 

 A number of well known general considerations are opposed 

 to Yichrow's contention, especially the fact that the Alaska 

 nephrite is of a type different from those of Yenezula and 



