$G REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 



10. Explorations of the Hudson' s Bay Territory, hy Mr. Robert- Ken- 

 nicott. — Mr. Kenuicott, under the patronage of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, and by the assistance of the University of Michigan at Ann 

 Arbor, the Audubon Club of Chicago, the Chicago Academy of Sci- 

 ences, and a number of gentlemen interested in the natural history of 

 the Arctic regions, has been during the past year engaged in an ex- 

 ploration of the north, which promises results of no ordinary import- 

 ance. His labors have been greatly facilitated by the cordial co- 

 operation of Sir George Simpson, governor of the territory, and the 

 officers of the service, especially of Mr. Barnston, of Michipicoten, 

 and Mr. B. R. Ross, of Fort Simpson. Mr. Kennicott left in May for 

 Lake Superior, via Toronto and Collingwood. From Fort William, on 

 Lake Superior, he was conveyed to Norway House in the Company's 

 boats, and thence towards Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie. At the 

 latest advices, of July 29, he had reached Me thy or La Loche Portage, 

 and, in compan}^ with Mr. Ross, it was his expectation to proceed in a 

 few days to Fort Simpson, there to winter. He intends in the spring 

 to go to Great Slave or Bear Lake to collect eggs, and hopes to re- 

 main long enough in the north to spend another spring and summer 

 on the Youkon of Russian America, and another on the shores of the 

 Arctic ocean, north of Great Bear Lake. 



A small portion only of the collections made by Mr. Kennicott have 

 yet reached Washington; those gathered between Norway House and 

 Portage La Loche having arrived at Pembina too late to come down 

 this year. Among the specimens received, however, is a fine skin of 

 the rare Larus Sabini, or the fork-tailed gull, shot on Lake Winnipeg. 



Mr. Kennicott was accompanied to Lake Winnipeg by Mr. Charles 

 A. Hubbard, of Milwaukie, who returned home in the fall, by way of 

 Fort Garry and Pembina, from whom the Institution received a val- 

 uable collection of eggs, and through him, from Mr. Donald Gunn, a 

 number of birds and of specimens in alcohol. ' 



11. Explorations on the Saskatcheivan, by Captain Blakiston, R. A. — 

 The Institution has also received some interesting collections made on 

 the Saskatchewan, by Captain Thomas Blakiston, R. A., through the 

 Royal Artillery Institution at Woolwich, London. These consist of 

 eggs and skins of birds, several of the former of which are rare and 

 new to our museum. 



Dr. Rae, the celebrated Arctic traveller, presented to the Institution 

 specimens of Spermophilus parryi from Repulse bay, latitude 56° 30' 

 uorth, thus supplying an important addition to the collection of North 

 American mammals. 



12. Various other points on the ivest coast. — Other collections of in- 

 terest consist of nests, eggs, and skins of birds, and of other animals 

 from Fort Umpqua, sent by Dr. Vollum; of skeletons of the sea otter, 

 by Mr. R. W. Dunbar; of specimens in alcohol, by Mr. Alexander Tay- 

 lor; and of eggs, by Dr. C. A. Canfield. 



13. Explorations of Fort Crook, by John Feilner, esq. — Mr. Feilner 

 during the past year has made large collections of birds and mam- 

 mals at Fort Crook, rivalling those of Mr. Xantus at Fort Tejon. 



