Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1883 — LIEUT. STONEY’S FIND. [ARTICLE]

LIEUT. STONEY’S FIND.

He Discovers a River la Alaska Twenty Miles Wide and of Immense Length. [San Francisco Dispatch.] Lieut. Stoney, who went up on the last trip of the revenue steamer Corwin, for the purpose of distributing ainong- the Tchuckchee Indians in Alaska the Ss,ooo‘worth of presents given them by the Government in recognition ,qf the shelter and food afforded the officers find .crew of the steamer Rodgers, burned in IStii, repprts the discovery of a river heretofore unknown to geographers. The river had been, , vaguely spoken off by Indians to former explorers, and Stoney, being compelled to ayait 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 traced it to its mouth, a distance of about fifteen miles, where he 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 Hie 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 Havimr no time to go further, Stoney returned. <lt is Lieut. Stoney’s opinion that the discovery of this river accounts for the large amount of floating timber" in the Arctic popularly supposed to come down the Yukon. The Indians stated that the at some places is twenty miles wide. It is within the Arctic circle, but in August, when Stoney was there, he found flowers and vegetation no* hitherto discovered in so 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.