70 REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 



features of the country , will be made, witli collections illustrating its: 

 natural History, ethnology, &c, and transmitted to the Institution. 

 A large amount of material has already "been received from him and 

 his coadjutors in the way of meteorology and natural history. Among 

 the more important animals are skins of the Kocky Mountain goat, 

 Arctic reindeer, Barren G-round hear, Hare-Indian dog, &c. ; skeletons 

 of goat, reindeer, wolverene, skins of various fishes, as Thymallus, 

 Sal mo Mackenzii, &c. ; Esquimaux and Indian curiosities, with many 

 other objects of equal interest. 



Mr. W. Mactavish, chief factor, resident at Fort Garry, has laid the 

 Institution under special obligations by his assistance in the transmis- 

 sion of supplies to and reception of collections from Mr. Kennicott, as 

 well as himself procuring specimens from different points and forward- 

 ing to Washington. 



Mr. Kennicott intended to return to Fort Simpson in August, and to' 

 proceed down the Mackenzie to Fort Good Hope ; thence across the 

 Rocky Mountains to Fort Yukon, on the Yukon river, a post in the 

 interior of Russian-America. There, in a region almost entirely un- 

 known, not merely in its natural history, but its very geography, he 

 expects to remain until next summer, then to proceed to some other 

 desirable center of operations. 



It will be remembered that while the chief expenses of Mr. Kenni- 

 cott' s operations are sustained by this Institution, very important 

 assistance has been received from the University of Michigan, the Chi^ 

 cago Audubon Club, 'and the Chicago Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 together with several gentlemen interested in natural history. With- 

 out the facilities furnished by the Hudson's Bay Company and its officers, 

 however, the enterprise, in its present extent, would be entirely imprac- 

 ticable. 



Mr. George Barnston, of Michipicoten, Lake Superior, to whom Mr. 

 Kennicott was much indebted for the favorable direction of his opera- 

 tions at the outset, has furnished many desirable additions to the collec- 

 tions of the Institution from the north shore of Lake Superior. Chief 

 among these may be mentioned a skin of the reindeer in superb condi- 

 tion, and now mounted in the museum ; also, a nearly complete skeleton 

 of the same animal. 



Exploration of James' Bay by Mr. C. Drexler. — Mr. C. Drexler 

 visited James' Bay, the southern extremity of Hudson's Bay, in May 

 last, and remained until September. He reached Moose Factory the 

 end of May, and after a few days, proceeded in a canoe, with some 

 Indians, as far along the east coast as Fort George, where he remained 

 some time. He was chiefly engaged in the collection of eggs of birds, 

 though all other departments of natural history received his attention. 



As in the case of Mr. Kennicott, the aid of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany has been indispensable to the success of Mr. Drexler' s enterprise. 

 The facilities ordered by Sir George Simpson, and carried out by Mr. 

 John McKenzie, at Moose Factory, with the cooperation of the gentle- 

 men at the posts visited, enabled him, with the small means at his 

 command, to accomplish results of great interest and magnitude. The 

 collections made by Mr. Drexler were also taken from Moose Factory 



