220 
The intimacy of Agassiz and Guyot, and the 
parallel courses of their lives, may be beauti- 
fully traced in the memoir of Agassiz which 
Guyot wrote for the National academy in 
1877-78, but did not print until April of last 
year. It is a biographical gem. The two 
friends were born in Switzerland, were compan- 
ions in study, were colleague professors in a 
post-graduate academy at Neufchatel, were co- 
workers in glacial researches, were disturbed 
by political changes in their native canton, 
were emigrants to America, were neighbors 
in Cambridge, were comrades in sensible efforts 
to make science intelligible to the people, were 
investigators of American problems. In this 
memoir of his friend, Guyot has revealed him- 
self by many a characteristic touch. After a 
fresh perusal of its pages, we are led to wonder 
how much scientific progress would have been 
delay ed in this country, if it had not been for 
the inspiring and co-operating influence oi these 
noble immigrants. 
Like Faraday , Clerk Maxwell, Agassiz, Jo- 
seph Henry, and Benjamin Peirce, Guyot was a 
man who was devoted to research, who believed 
in carrying it to the utmost, and yet who was 
never troubled by the idea of a possible ‘ con- 
flict’ between science and religion. ‘To him 
nature was a manifestation of God. Natural 
laws were divine laws. ‘There could be no an- 
tagonism between them. On the contrary, he 
believed that the more we learn of the human 
soul, of the course of history, and of the struc- 
ture of the world, the more harmonious will 
they appear as parts of one great plan. His 
faith, both in science and in religion, was so 
strong that his influence kept many clergymen 
from bigotry, many students from atheism. In 
him they saw a man to whom the study of sci- 
ence and the worship of God were alike oe 
tory. 
THE ALASKA MILITARY RECONNOIS- 
SANCE OF 1883.1 
Tis expedition arose from a desire of the 
department commander in the military depart- 
ment in which Alaska territory is situated ? to 
gain some military knowledge of the Indian 
tribes in that district, and especially in those 
parts recently opened by mining discoveries, 
fishing industries, and other causes. Besides 
gaining this information, it has also done some- 
thing in the interest of science, especially for 
geography. The part of the route here treated 
Explorations and surveys from Chilcoot mission, Alaska, 
to old Fort Selkirk, British America. 
2 Department of the Columbia, headquarters, Fort Vancou- 
ver, W.T.; Brevet Major-Gen. Nelson A. Miles, commanding. 
SCIENCE. 
[Vor. IIL, No. 55. 
was almost unexplored, excepting the Chilcoot 
and Dayay inlets, and the portion from the 
Kotusk Mountains to Lake Lindeman, which 
had been traversed by the Krause brothers, 
sent out by the Bremen geographical society. 
If such an expression may be considered cor- 
rect, it was really worse than wholly unex- 
plored, in that the maps and books purporting 
to be authority over this section of the country 
were erroneous beyond the limits of sensible 
guessing. The party consisted of seven white 
persons, — two officers and five others, — and 
a number of Indians that varied from two to 
sixty or more. ¥ 
There are said to be three or four passes 
through the glacier-clad mountains that sepa- 
rate the salt-water estuaries of the Pacific from 
the head waters of the Yukon, two of which 
are known as the Chilcat and Chilcoot trails ; 
and over these two it has been known for about 
a century that Alaskan Indians of certain tribes 
had passed, in order to trade with the Indians 
on the sources of this great stream. The last 
(the Chilcoot) is the best of allthe trails, and 
was the one undertaken by the party. Why this 
or the Chilcat route had not been picked out long 
ago by some explorer, especially those of com- 
paratively recent dates, who could thereby have 
traversed the entire river in a single summer, 
instead of combating its swift current from its 
mouth, seems singular in the light of the above 
facts, and can only be explained by supposing 
that those who would place sufficient reliance 
in Indian reports to put in their maps the gross 
inaccuracies cited would also be likely to place 
reliance in the other reports of the same Indi- 
ans ; and these from time immemorial have pro- 
nounced this part of the river as unnavigable 
even for canoes, being filled with rapids, can- 
ons, whirlpools, and cascades. 
Formerly this Chileoot pass had been monop- - 
olized by the Chilcoot Indians, who did not 
even allow the Chilcats — almost of the same 
blood — to use it: these were thus forced over 
the Chilcat route, which has an irksome port- 
age of twelve or thirteen days to the head of 
the Tahk River (Tahk-heen-a of the Chil- 
cats), a branch of the Yukon about half the 
size of the parent stream where it empties into 
the latter. Both of the bands on the upper 
Lynn Channel have united in keeping back — 
the migration of the interior Indians to their _ 
waters in order to monopolize this trans-mon- 
tane commerce. However, of late years, not — 
only have the Chilcats used the mountain-pass — 
of the ie but both have allowed the 
Tahk-heesh or ‘ Stick’ Indians of the interior to” 
visit their own domain. I employed some of 
