Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1883 — LIEUT. STONEY'S FIND. [ARTICLE]

LIEUT. STONEY'S FIND.

He Discovers a Btver in Alaska Twenty Miles Wide and of Immense Length. [Ban Francisco Dispatch.] Lieut Stoney, who went up on the last trip of the revenue steamer’Corwin, for tho purpose of distributing among the Tchuckchee Indians in Alaska the ss,ooojworth of presents given them by the Government in recognition of the shelter and food afforded the officers and crew of the steamer Rodgers, burned in 1881, reports the disoovery of a river heretofore unknown to geographers. The river had been vaguely spoken of by Indians to former explorers, and Stoney, being compelled to await the return of the Corwin, determined to see if there was anything In It. Accompanied by one attendant and an interpreter he proceeded inland from Hotham inlet In a southeasterly direction until he struck what he believed to be the mysterious river. He traoed it to its mouth, a distance of about fifteen miles, where be saw such Immense pieces of floating timber as to satisfy him that the stream must be of Immense size. He retraced his steps a distance of fifty miles, where he encountered natives from whom he learned that to reach the headwaters of the unknown stream would take several months. The Indians told him they came down a distance of 1,500 miles to meet a fur trader, and that the river went up higher than that. Havin'/ no time to go further, Stoney returned. It is Lieut. Stonoy’s opinion that the discovery of this river accounts for the large amount of floating Umber in the Arctic popularly supposed to come down the Yukon. The Indians stated that the river at some p'aces is twenty miles wide. It te within the Arctic circle, but in August, when Stoney was tnere, he found flowers and vegetation not hitherto discovered in bo high latitudes. He has forwarded his report to the Secretary of the Navy, and hopes to be permitted to come back to continue his explorations.