May, 1915 
EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 
133 
New York, April 3, 1865, and moved to Kala- 
mazoo in 1872. His favorite study was 
ornithology, and his collection of birds, 
nests, and eggs is one of the best in his 
State. The many friends who enjoyed the 
privilege of Pomeroy’s acquaintance bear 
witness to his kindly nature and earnest 
helpfulness. Although always residing in 
the East, he was deeply interested in West- 
ern ornithology, and followed closely the re- 
sults of the work of others, as reported in 
current magazines. 
Dr. Barton W. Evermann and Mr. Joseph 
Mailliard spent a week in April in the Kern 
Valley district of the extreme southern 
Sierra Nevada. Their prime object was to 
learn further details of the manner of occur- 
rence of the remarkably restricted Kern 
Red-winged Blackbird, lately described by 
Mr. Mailliard. The trip was a success, and 
the results will be reported in due time. 
COMMUNICATION 
BECK AT CAPE HORN 
Editor The Condor: 
Having rounded the Horn safely in our 
twelve-ton cutter, and being anchored with- 
in fifteen miles of that well-known land- 
mark waiting for one of the ordinary gales 
to let up, a line to you will pass away a 
few minutes until the candy boiling on the 
floor of the cabin on a seventy-eight-cent oil 
stove bought in San Francisco is pronounced 
by Mrs. Beck ready for eating. We passed 
scmewhat closer to Cape Horn than do most 
of the passers-by, going inside the two outer 
rocks which lie a half mile or so to the 
southward. 
The blue-eyelidded, white-breasted cormo- 
rants were nesting on a pinnacle rock to 
the westward, recalling the murre rookeries 
of Alaskan islands. Albatrosses and sooty 
shearwaters sailed high and low 1 about us. 
Skuas flew by in rapid flight to some dis- 
tant fishing point, and frequently penguins 
would show for a brief moment above the 
choppy sea. 
If the captain of the boat had not been 
so anxious to take me back alive to Punta 
Arenas, I might have landed and gone up 
on top of the Horn for a look around; but 
the uncertainty of the winds and their rapid 
changing from one point to another, as well 
as the sudden manner in which ( they in- 
crease most forcefully in strength, prevent- 
ed. As it was, the nice breeze we had, 
picked up after dinner into half a gale, and 
it felt most comfortable to run into a shel- 
tered cove and anchor. 
In the last five weeks, three days have 
passed without rain, snow or hail, and I’m 
hoping for as many more on the return trip. 
Some days but a squall or two, and others 
a continual drizzle, makes the raincoat con- 
stantly necessary. Compared with the off- 
shore ranging of the common California 
albatross, the fishing here by the common 
albatross in these southern channels border- 
ed on either side by snow-topped hills is in- 
teresting. The island land-bird life is rather 
barren though, as compared with the Aleu- 
tian Islands of Alaska. One misses the 
ptarmigan, the cheery snowflake and the 
brightly colored leucosticte, although the 
latter has a counterpart here in a rarely 
noticed, black-chinned finch that inhabits 
rocky hillsides. Sea-birds are plentiful, and 
I have seen nesting colonies of terns, gulls, 
shags, penguins, shearwaters, and alba- 
trosses. 
Sincerely, 
R. H. Beck. 
Cape Horn, Chili, January 3, 1915. 
PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 
Report on Birds Collected and Observed 
during April, May, and June, 1913, in the 
Okanagan Valley, from Okanagan Landing 
south to Osoyoos Lake. By E. M. Ander- 
son. (Report of the Provincial Museum of 
Natural History for the year 1913, Victoria, 
British Columbia, Jan., 1914, pp. 7-16.) 
Report of Birds Collected and Observed 
during September, 1913, on Atlin Lake, 
from Atlin to South End of the Lake. By 
F. Kermode and E. M. Anderson. (Ibid., 
pp. 19-21.) 
Birds Collected and Observed in the 
Atlin District, 1914. By E- M. Anderson. 
(Report of the Provincial Museum of Nat- 
ural History for the year 1914, Victoria, 
British Columbia, January, 1915, pp. 8-17.) 
The lists contained in the above cited 
papers include what may be accepted as 
practically complete catalogues of the sum- 
mer birds of the regions treated. As little 
or nothing has been published heretofore 
regarding the birds of the Atlin district and 
of Okanagan Valley, of extreme northern 
and extreme southern British Columbia, re- 
spectively, these contributions are conse- 
quently of importance, and as evident care 
was taken in the collection and proper 
identification of specimens, they may be 
taken as authoritative. 
From Okanagan Valley one hundred and 
twenty-nine specimens are listed; from the 
