(5 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ALASKA. 



and by the same order was instructed to proceed to Washington City and report to the Chief 

 Signal Officer in person. I departed from Unalashka July 22, 1881, and arrived in Washington 

 City September 15, 1881, where I received instructions to prepare this report from the notes made 

 by me while in Alaska. 



Of the difficulties under which I have labored to carry out my instructions, and to procure the 

 number of objects of the natural history of the places visited by me, it is not necessary to relate 

 in this connection. 



The report is intended to give only such notes as were made by myself in the field, and only 

 in such instances as are necessary to substantiate my own observations have I made any citations 

 from other works on the subjects under consideration. 



The arrangement of subjects is presented under the heads of — 



Letter to the Chief Signal Officer. 



Physical and descriptive geography. 



Meteorology. 



Botany. 



Fishes. 



Birds, with list of other birds known to occur in Alaska. 



Mammals. 



The subject of meteorology is believed to be sufficiently explicit in itself to require no explana. 

 tion, other than that the tables are based on the observations as taken by the persons whose 

 names are made in that connection. 



The list of plants is that given by Dr. J. T. Rothrock in Smithsonian Report for 1867, and 

 contains those plants principally collected by the employes of the Western Union Telegraph 

 Company, in their exploration connected with the Russian overland telegraph expedition, Dr. 

 Rothrock himself among the number. To this list has been added such plants as were collected 

 by me and identified by Prof. A. Gray, of Harvard University ; the ferns by Prof. D. C Eaton ; the 

 grasses by Dr. G. W. Vasey and Mr. Conant, of tlie Agricultural Department. The order of the 

 list has not been changed from that presented by Dr. Rothrock, and with it are combined such 

 notes and distribution of species as were made by me. There is no doubt but that the list will 

 admit of many additions, there having been so little opportunity to consult and reach all the litera- 

 ture on the entire subject, I could not in time obtain the more recent works so as to present to it in 

 accordance with the recent classifications. 



I may justly state in this connection that of all great difficulties the most troublesome was 

 to preserve the plants after I had collected them. The constant moisture of the climate has 

 frequently ruined my entire collection of a summer's work. All that remained after supposing the 

 plants were sufficiently dried would be a mass of mold and dry edges of paper, this being appar- 

 ently done in less than forty-eight hours' time. 



The only reptile obtained by me was a Bona sylvatica ? from Fort Yukon, just within the 

 Arctic circle, where this species is quite plentiful. This and a species of Bufo from the vicinity of 

 Sitka are the only two batrachians known to me to be found in the Territory. 



The collection of fishes was not large, owing to the lack of preservative material in other 

 quautity than merely sufficient to preserve only the rarer and smaller kinds. 



To Dr. T. H. Bean, curator of ichthyology of the National Museum, was given the task of 

 elaborating the material, many of the species being new to science and others rare. The notes 

 are given just as made in the field. That they could have been made more extensive by consulting 

 other authors is evident, but such course was not deemed necessary. 



The engrossing nature of other work necessarily limited the collection of birds, as it was im. 

 possible for me to leave the station for the purpose of making more extensive investigations; and 

 there was no one to whom I could entrust the duties to be performed by me. In the spring and 

 summer, when the birds were most plentiful, preparations of the past season's work had to be 

 attended to, in order to ship them on the expected vessel, whose movements xfepended entirely on 

 the absence or presence of the ice ; so that only the latter part of the summer was available for 

 procuring specimens. During the period from November to the succeeding May few ptarmigan 



