jgo The V\/est American Scientist. 



Mr. McKay had already made a valuable contribution to the 

 Ichthyology of the United States, having written a monograph of 

 the CentrarchidcE, in which one new species was described. He 

 was Museum Assistant to Professor Jordan, and graduated with 

 honors from the State University of Indiana, the year he went to 

 Alaska. Mr. McKay was stationed at the Eskimo village of 

 Nushagak, on the river of that name, fifty miles from Bristol Bay, 

 and near 59° north latitude, 158° west longitude. 



A letter from the Agent of the Alaska Commercial Co., brought 

 the sad news to San Francisco, of Mr. McKay's death as follows: 



When out collecting in April, 1883, Mr. McKay was drowned. 

 He was alone in a bidarka or canoe, and it was supposed that he 

 tried to beach his canoe on the ice, but not succeeding, the boat 

 was capsized. Other members of the party afterward found his 

 gun, but his body has not been recovered. At the time of his sud- 

 den death, Mr. McKay had been in Alaska two years, and in one 

 year more would have been ready to return to civilization. A good 

 house had been built, and it was comfortably furnished and sup- 

 plied with books lor his use, but the only persons in the village 

 who could speak English, were the Fur Company's agent and his 

 assistant, a half-breed Indian. 



Mail was brought twice a year by a schooner sent from San 

 Francisco, by the Alaska Commercial Co. Of the short days and 

 long cold winters, Mr. McKay wrote little, but in his letters there 

 are interesting accourts of the country and its inhabitants. He 

 says: "Nushagak is not on the seashore, but is 40 or 50 miles up 

 the river. The rivers in this country are large magnificent bodies 

 of water. In front of the village the river is about four miles wide ; 

 the air, however, is so clear here, that it looks to be not a mile to 

 the other shore. Over beyond the opposite shore, apparently a 

 stones' throw, but in reality about twenty miles, is a range of low, 

 rugged, sharp, clear-cut mountains; back of the village stretches 

 the treeless tundra, dotted all over with little fresh water lakes. 

 Timber grows along the river bottoms, but so near the sea-coast 

 as this, none grows back from the rivers. This country has a cer- 

 tain desolate beauty of its own; if the vegetation was only as rich 

 and luxuriant as the States, it would be really a beautiful country. 

 * * =i^ * Yj^g Indians here live in little villages along the 

 banks of the rivers, usually where fish are to be had in plenty. 

 They live in barrabaras or sod houses. The simplest lorm of a 

 sod house is made by driving a few sticks into the ground, putting 

 a few sticks across them for a roof, and covering the whole around 

 and over with about a foot and a half of sods, leaving a hole in the 

 roof for the smoke to escape, and a hole for a door; better barra- 

 baras are made by building a regular log hot and covering it over 

 with sod. The Indians dress almost entirely in skins; their sum- 

 mer suit consists of a squirrel skin cap, a squirrel skin parka, deer 

 skin trowsers and moccasins; for socks they pull a wisp of dry hay 



