612 General Notes. [July. 



GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. 1 ' 



The Churches and the Kuro-Sivo. — Captain Hooper, lately 

 in command of the U.S. steamer Corzvin, in an address before the 

 Geographical Society of the Pacific, spoke of the habits and cus- 

 toms of the Chukches who inhabit the arctic coast of Siberia. In 

 the winter they travel west on their way to the Russian trading 

 posts in the interior, which they reach by ascending the rivers 

 west of Cape Jakan ; in the spring they travel to East Cape, cross 

 Behring Strait, and continue their journey to Cape Blossom, 

 Kotzebue Sound, where they meet the Eskimo from the entire 

 coast of Arctic Alaska, from Point Barrow to Cape Prince of 

 Wales, for purposes of trade, returning to their houses by the 

 same route in the latter part of the summer. 



Captain Hooper is of the opinion that a branch of the Kuro- 

 Sivo, or Japanese warm stream, parses through Behring Strait, 

 but subject to the varying conditions of wind and ice. A south- 

 erly wind accelerates it, while a northerly wind stops it entirely 

 for a time; and in some cases of a long-continued northerly 

 wind, it is not impossible that a slight southerly set may be cre- 

 ated, but such an occurrence must be rare and of short duration. 

 The current is much stronger in August and September than 

 in the earlv part of the season when the ice-pack extends en- 

 tirely across the Behring Sea. This branch of the Kuro-Sivo 

 follows the direction of the Kamchatka coast to the northward 

 through Behring Sea, passing between St. Lawrence Island and 

 the coast of Asia, and thence through the strait, after which it is 

 controlled in a great measure by the condition of the ice-pack. 

 Captain Hooper stated that lie had never known the current 

 through the Strait to exceed three knots per hour, the average 

 being probably not more than two knots. Near Herald and 

 Wrangell Islands the current was found setting to the north and 

 eastward about two knots per hour, and no tidal change was de- 

 tected ; off the south coast of Wrangell Island a slight w -torly 

 current was observed. In the Arctic, as well as in the B-hnng 

 Sea, there is no doubt a tidal current, but it is so dependent on 

 the conditions of the ice that only the mean of a long series ot 

 careful observations could determine its characteristics. 



Six cases containing the zoological and anthropological collec- 

 tions, made by the brothers Krause in the Chukchi peninsula, 

 have arrived at Bremen. Dr. Arthur Krause will remain in 

 Alaska during the summer, but his brother is now on his way 



Geographical Notes.— Mr. A. R. Colquhoun, an officer in the 

 employ of the Government of India, who has spent ten years in 

 surveying and engineering work n British Burma, h 

 a journey through southern China, and across the frontier tnrou & 



1 Edited by Ellis H. Yarnall, Philadelphia. 



