1908.] 



PEEVIOUS EXPLORATIONS KENNICOTT. 



71 



at Fort Simpson received news Avhich necessitated his return to the 

 United States. He arrived in Chicago on October 17. Of his life, 

 mainly spent in scientific research, between that date and March, 

 1865, when he left the United States for Alaska to take charge of a 

 party of surveyors in connection with the overland telegraph expedi- 

 tion, and of his untimely death at Nulato on May 13, 18GG, it is 

 unnecessary now to speak. It is desirable, however, to refer briefly 

 to the labors of a number of gentlemen, mainly employees of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, who, during the visit of Kennicott to the 

 Mackenzie and for several years afterwards, collected and forwarded 

 to the Smithsonian Institution thousands of valuable specimens. 

 Among them may be mentioned Roderick MacFarlane, B. R. Ross, 

 James Lockhart, Lawrence Clarke, W. L. Hardisty, James Mc- 

 Dougall, John Reid, C. P. Gaudet, Strachan Jones, J. S. Camsell, 

 Murdo McLeod, James Sibbiston, A. McKenzie, Andrew and James 

 Flett, R. MacDonald, W. J. McLean, William Brass, Nicholas Taylor, 

 and ^Y. C. King. 



Of these Roderick MacFarlane, an officer of the Hudson's Baj- 

 Company, made by far the most extensive collections, mainly in the 

 Anderson River region. A brief account of the circumstances under 

 which these collections were formed may begin with a few notes 

 regarding his first trip to this region, which never before had been 

 visited by a white man. He left Fort Good Hope on June 4, 1857, 

 and pursued a general northeasterly course on foot to a large lake, 

 which he called Canoe Lake. A party of Indians had canoes in 

 readiness on this lake, and its outlet, called by him the Iroquois, 

 was descended to a larger stream called the Lockhart, which was 

 reached on June 11 after much difficult navigation and several long 

 portages. The Lockhart at the point where they reached it was 

 found to be a stream about 50 yards Avide, easily navigable for 

 canoes, and bordered b}^ high, well-Avooded banks. MacFarlane de- 

 scended this river to its junction with a larger one, named by him 

 the Anderson, a stream varying in Avidth from 500 to 1,500 yards 

 and supposed to be identical Avith the ' Beghula ' of Richardson. 

 This riA^er was reached June 13, and Avas found to be still full of 

 floating ice, haA^ing broken up only on the preAdous day. On June 

 11 he commenced the descent of Anderson RIaw, liaA^ng a party of 

 ten persons in two canoes. It was his intention to follow it to its 

 mouth, but when within about a day's journey of the sea he was 

 forced by a large party of unfriendly Eskimo to abandon the canoes 

 and the heavier portions of the baggage. Leaving here June 16, 

 the members of the 23arty retraced their way on foot and reached the 

 mouth of the Lockhart on June 24. Obtaining a small canoe here, 

 MacFarlane explored a considerable portion of the upper Anderson 



