FEBRUARY 29, 1884. ] 
element; and the sky, too, was cloudless. A 
very light series of earthquake-shocks also 
seemed a poor theory ; and there was but little 
left to attribute it to, except the cascades, 
which, I believe, have been known to cause 
earth-tremblings and analogous phenomena. 
About noon on the 5th of July we passed 
the Tahk River (Tahk-heen-a of the Indians) 
coming in from the west, and which is prob- 
ably two-thirds the size of the ‘Tahk-heesh, 
as the Indians call the Yukon proper. While 
the former river is the smaller, its bed and 
valley apparently determine the general char- 
acteristics of the stream farther on, the 
Yukon here noticeably changing from high 
bold bluffs of clay to lower shores wooded to 
the water’s edge. The last of the chain of 
lakes was reached the same day, and we were 
prevented from taking advantage of a good 
wind by a three-hours’ detention on a sand- 
bar that the river had made almost entirely 
across its mouth. This lake was called by the 
Indians Kluk-tas-si; and, as it was one of the 
very few pronounceable Indian names of this 
section of the country, I retained it, although 
it is possible that this may be the Lake La- 
barge of some books, the fact that it is the 
first lake above old Selkirk being the only data 
in its favor, while its relation to other impor- 
tant points are equally against it. Like Lake 
Marsh, it is full of mud-banks; its emerging 
waters being clear, while its incoming supplies 
are loaded with deposit. So full of these is 
‘Kluk-tas-si, and so much more contracted is 
the water-way through them, that I think we 
were able to detect a slight current when 
making our way along in the blue water. 
This was especially noticeable when the wind 
died down toa calm. Despite all this, Kluk- 
tas-si was better for making landings on its 
shores than Marsh. It seems that it must be 
amere matter of short geological time when 
these lakes will be filled by deposits, and 
converted into limited parts of the river. Such 
ancient lakes are noticeable in the course of 
the great stream farther on. The west bank 
of the last lake is very picturesque about four- 
teen or fifteen miles from its entrance, where 
large towers of red rocks throw up their con- 
spicuous flanks on what seems to be a well- 
marked island, but which is really a part of 
the mainland, our Indians assured us. Here, 
also, comes in a river, say the same authorities, 
abounding in banks of the same material, and 
called by themthe Red River. The frequency 
of this name in geographical nomenclature 
was sufficient reason to abandon it; and I 
named the rocks and river (the latter we never 
SCIENCE. 
249 
saw) Richthofen rocks and river, after Freiherr 
von Richthofen of Bonn, well known in geo- 
graphical science. ‘The right bank seems to 
be made of rounded hills of gray limestone, 
being picturesquely striped with the foliage of 
the dark evergreens growing inthe rayines. A 
number of salmon-trout were caught in this 
last lake (the first one was secured in Lake 
Bove), the largest of which weighed over eight 
pounds, the limits of our pocket fish-scales. 
On the 9th, at 10.30 a.m., we bade adieu 
to lake navigation, our hearts much lighter 
for the fact. That same day we saw a grizzly 
or immense brown bear, whose rapid departure 
gave us very little chance for close inspection. 
Our Indians say in regard to the scarcity of 
game, that the moose and caribou follow the 
snow-line as it retreats up the mountains in 
the spring and summer; also that the moose 
do not build ‘yards’ in the winter, as in 
Maine and the Canadian provinces. On the 
same day we passed the mouth of the New- 
berry River (after Professor John S. Newberry 
of New York), coming in from the east, about 
a hundred and twenty-five yards wide ; and the 
Yukon at once became very much deeper, 
swifter, and the water of a darker hue, show- 
ing that the Newberry drained a considerable 
amount of ‘tundra’ land, or land where the 
water, saturated with the dyes extracted from 
dead leaves and mosses, is prevented from 
clarifying itself by percolating through the soil, 
by an impervious substratum of ice, and is car- 
ried off by superficial drainage directly into 
the river-beds. Forty miles farther on, meas- 
ured along the stream, comes in the D’ Abba- 
die,’ over a hundred and fifty yards wide at 
its mouth, and said to be over two hundred 
and fifty miles in length. It notes an impor- 
tant point on the Yukon River as being the 
place at which gold in placer deposits com- 
mences. From the D’Abbadie to the very 
mouth of the great Yukon, a panful of ‘ dirt’ 
taken from almost any bar or bank with any 
discretion, will, when washed, give several 
‘colors,’ to use a miner’s phrase. Another 
forty miles, and the Daly River comes in from 
the east, forming, with the Newberry and 
D’ Abbadie, a singular triplet of almost similar 
rivers. The last I have named after Chief- 
Justice Daly of New York, a leading patron 
of my Franklin search expedition. 
The prevalence of the larger rivers to the 
east showed this to be the main drainage area 
of the upper Yukon, a rule broken only by the 
Nordenskidld River coming in from the west, 
5 1M. Antoine D’Abbadie, membre de l'Institut de France, 
aris. 
