JUNE 13, 1884.] 
fish; all the dimensions also become much 
larger. It may be interesting to state, that, 
when the fish is netted, a turn is given to the 
handle, thus effectually trapping it below the 
mouth ; and, when brought up alongside, a fish- 
club (fig. 15) is used to kill it immediately, for 
the struggles of so large a fish might easily up- 
set a fragile ca- 
noe. A number 
of Hudson-Bay 
taboggans were 
seen at the Indi- 
an village, and near the trading-station, on scaf- 
folds, and seem to be the principal sledges of the 
country. Their snow-shoes differed from those 
of the Chilcats only in immaterial designs. 
The next day, the 22d, while under way, we 
saw a dead king-salmon floating belly upwards, 
and on the lower river saw a few, but never 
saw the numbers spoken of by previous travel- 
lers. I now noticed, in many places in the 
flat river-bottoms (with high banks, however), 
that the ground, especially in open places, was 
covered with a springy moss or peat; and if 
the bank was at all gravelly, so as to give good 
drainage, and allow the water to scour out 
underneath, as usual in temperate climes, and 
not in immense frozen masses, as previously 
described, this sphagnum was so tough that 
it would not go with the banks, but remained 
attached to that of the crest, forming great 
blankets a foot thick, that overhung the shores, 
as I have tried to show in fig. 16. Some of 
these banks were from fifteen to eighteen feet 
high, and this moss would reach to the water. 
I suppose the reason that it 
was more noticeable in open 
Spaces was, that the trees 
and shrubs, and especially @ 
their roots, would, from un- §& 
der mining, P 
carry the 
moss with 
their heavy 
weight into 
the water 
as they fell. For the first time the soil seemed 
to be thick and black ; and grass, always good, 
was now really luxuriant for any climate. At 
camp 36 we found rosebuds large and sweet 
enough to eat. They were much larger than 
those at home, somewhat pear-shaped ; and the 
increase in size is entirely in the fleshy capsule, 
while even the seeds seem to be less ‘downy’ 
and dry than those of temperate climes. Dur- 
ing the night of the 22d—23d the river rose ten 
inches, all of which, I think, can be accounted 
for by the recent continued summer rains. 
Fig. 15. 
Fig. 16. 
SCIENCE. 
va | 
At 3.30 of the 23d we sighted Charlie’s 
village, as it is called; but the current was so 
swift that we could not get the raft in so as 
to camp alongside, but made a sand-bar half 
a mile belew. Charlie’s village was an exact 
counterpart of that of Johnny’s, even as to 
number of houses; and considering this, and 
the trouble to reach it, I did not attempt to 
photograph it. Attempting to reach it with 
the raft, so anxious were the Indians that we 
should be successful, that as many as could 
do so, put the bows of their canoes on the 
outer log of the raft, and paddled with such 
vehemence that it seemed as if life depended 
upon success. We found a Canadian voyager 
by the name of Jo Sadue among them, who, as 
a partner of one of the traders on the lower 
river, had drifted here in prospecting the stream 
for precious mineral. Jo, as he is known, 
speaks of the natives of both of these villages 
as Tadoosh, and says that they are the best- 
natured Indians from here to the mouth of the 
river. 
On the 24th the country seemed to flatten 
out, the hills having lower grades; but the 
mountains well to the westward still had 
patches of snow on their sides near the sum- 
mits. About half-past ten we saw a large 
buck moose swim from an island to the main- 
land just back of us, having probably, as a 
hunter would say, ‘ gotten our scent.’ About 
two in the afternoon the river widened out to 
a great extent, and was full of islands. Start- 
ing from camp 38, the river, as the map shows, 
becomes one vast network of islands, the 
whole country as level as the great plains ; 
and, as we entered it, our Chilcats seemed seri- 
ously to think that we were going out to sea; 
indeed, a person having no knowledge of the 
country might well think so. Here the mos- 
quitoes were a little worse than in the hilly 
country, and the gnats most decidedly so. As 
we started out into this flat country, the moun- 
tains to the left (or west) still continued in a 
range that was thrown back at an angle from 
the river’s course, and that ran out in a spur 
that was still continued by a series of peaks 
rising out of the flat land, and diminishing in 
size until they disappeared towards the north- 
north-west. I called them the Ratzel range, 
or peaks, after Professor Ratzel of Munich. 
The 27th of July we made old Fort Yukon 
(now abandoned asa trading-station), and 
connected our surveys with those of Capt. 
Raymond’s party in 1869, thus giving a survey 
the whole length of the river. 
FRED’K SCHWATKA, 
Lieut. U. S. army. 
