Regular Meeting, October 21st, 1867.
President in the Chair.
Twenty-three members present.
Mr. J. G. Burt was elected a Resident, and Professor W. D. Alexander, of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, a Corresponding Member.
Donation to the Cabinet: A large number of Californian plants, collected and presented by Messrs. Bolander and Kellogg.
Donations to the Library: Humboldt and Bonpland’s Botanical Observations in South America, four vols. 8vo., Paris, 1822, by Mr. Bolander.
Professor Whitney read extracts from letters recently received from Mr. Dall, dated at “St. Michael’s, Russian America, August 14th, 1867,” and addressed to the Academy and to himself. The following are some extracts from these letters:
“I have traveled on snow shoes, with the thermometer from 8° to 40° below zero, about four hundred miles. I have paddled in open canoes up stream six hundred and fifty miles, and down 1,300 miles. I have obtained 4,550 specimens, including a set of the rocks from Fort Youkon to the sea, sufficient to determine the geological formations for 1,300 miles. The only fossiliferous beds are on the Youkon, and they extend about sixty miles. They are brown sandstones, containing bivalve mollusca and vegetable remains. There is a small seam of coal thirty miles below the bend, and thin shale above and below. The coal is of good quality; but there is so little of it that it is worthless. These are the only fossiliferous strata I have thus far found. The rocks above and below are all azoic and nonstratified, excepting a little hard blue or black slate. Granite, and especially mica, are very rare. I found a pebble containing the well known fossils of the Niagara limestone on the beach near Fort Youkon. Fossil wood and bones and teeth of Elephas and Ovibos moschatus are common over the country. There is a broad patch of volcanic eruptive rock on the river near the lower bend, and it extends to the sea. The islands of St. Michael and Stuart are formed of it, and it is roughly columnar on the former near the Fort.”
“I have looked carefully for glacial traces, and so far have found absolutely none.”
Mr. Dall adds that it is his intention to spend another year in Russian America, working at his own expense, in order to finish the explorations commenced by himself, and which the failure of the Telegraph Company rendered it impossible for him to continue officially.
Dr. Cooper and Professor Whitney discussed the question whether the volcanoes of Oregon and Washington Territory were to be classed as active. The evidence on this point seemed very conflicting, so far as showers of ashes are concerned. There is no doubt, however, of the existence of solfataric action on Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, and probably on Rainier and Baker.
Professor Whitney exhibited some photographs and stereographs, taken for the Geological Survey by Mr. W. Harris, in the Upper Tuolumne Valley, near Soda Springs, Mount Dana, Mount Hoffmann, and Mount Lyell. He also presented the following account of a remarkable portion of the Tuolumne Valley, which forms almost an exact counterpart of the Yosemite. It is by Mr. Hoffmann, the head of a party of the Geological Survey, by which it was explored last summer: