394 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



some little presents — pipe, beads, file, and knife, and a small piece 

 of one of the adjuncts of civilization — soap. Somehow I thought 

 it possible that I had made an error of one day in keeping run of 

 the days of the month, but the lunar and solar distances of yester- 

 day have satisfied me that I was correct. I started on a walk up 

 the hills. I came to an Innuit monument, and many relics of 

 former inhabitants — three earth excavations, made when the In- 

 nuits built their houses in the ground. I now see a company of 

 eight wolves across the river, howling and running around the 

 rocks — howling just like the Innuit dogs. Now beside a noble 

 river. Its waters are pure as crystal. From this river I have 

 taken a draught on eating by its banks American cheese and 

 American bread. The American flag floats flauntingly over it 

 as the music of its waters seems to be ' Yankee Doodle.' I see 

 not why this river should not have an American name. Its wa- 

 ters are an emblem of purity. I know of no fitter name to bestow 

 upon it than that of the daughter of my generous, esteemed friend, 

 Henry Grinnell. I therefore, with the flag of my country in one 

 hand, my other in the limpid stream, denominate it ' Sylvia Grin- 

 nell Eiver.' 



"For the first half mile from the sea proper it runs quietly. 

 The next quarter of a mile it falls perhaps fifteen feet, running 

 violently over rocks. The next mile up it is on a level ; then 

 come falls again of ten feet in one fifth of a mile ; and thence (up 

 again) its course is meandering through low level land. From 

 the appearance of its banks, there are times when the stream is 

 five times the size of the present. Probably in July this annu- 

 ally occurs. The banks are of boulders the first two miles "up ; 

 thence, in some cases, boulders and grass. Two miles up from 

 where it enters the sea, on the east side, is the neck of a plain, 

 which grows wider and wider as it extends back. It looks from 

 the point where I am as if it were of scores and scores of acres. 

 Thence, on the east side, as far as I can see, there is a ridge' of 

 mountains. On the west side of the river, a plain of a quarter to 

 half a mile wide. This is a great salmon river, and so known in 

 this country among the Innuits. At our encampment I picked 

 up the vertebrse of a salmon, the same measuring twenty-one 

 inches, and a piece of the tail gone at that. 



" On returning from my ramble this afternoon up Sylvia Grin- 

 nell Eiver, saw the wolves again on the other side. They have 

 been howling and barking — Innuit dog-like — all day. I hear 



