16 ALASKA. 



The OunaJashla Bistricf.—TJndev this head may be placed the- 

 Aleutian Islands ; and as Illolook or Oimalashka Village is 

 the most important place among them, both with regard to 

 population and trade, and the best position as a port, its name 

 may be fitly applied to the whole region. 



This great chain of rugged islands, enveloped dnring the 

 greater part of the year in fogs, and swept over by frequent 

 gales, that, in combination with the mists and currents, make 

 it a region dreaded by the mariner, abounds in sharp hills, and 

 hilly or blufipy mountainous masses. Nearly every island— and 

 there are many, small and large— is as it were set up on end, 

 with small patches of bottom-land here and there, in rare inter- 

 vals, at the base of the hills and mountains. 



The appearance of any of these islands from a ship approach- 

 ing them during the summer, on a clear sunny day— and such 

 days are occasionally known — is most attractive; a rich, dark 

 coat of vivid green clothes the valleys, hills, and mountains, 

 quite to the snow-line. In these narrow defiles and bot- 

 tomland patches, the grass is most luxuriant, growing waist- 

 high, with low, stunted willow-bushes here and there in small 

 quantity; and it is at first not apparent, when one strolls about 

 the country on such a day, that it is utterly worthless as an ag- 

 ricultural or stock-raising country. The mountains principally 

 consist of syenitic granites and porphyries, with sharp sum- 

 mits and abrupt slopes, and present numerous small water- 

 courses, with little or no valley-ground. The vegetation is rank 

 and luxuriant, and, in favorable seasons, the grasses ripen their 

 seeds well. Quite a variety of berries abound ; for example, 

 salmon, huckle, crow, and blue berries. The only timber is a 

 slight willow, nowhere larger than a man's wrist, and not over 

 7 or 8 feet high, growing in small, scattered clumps, with 

 stunted specimens climbing way up the hill-sides. The thick, 

 dense carpet of crow-berry plants, into which one sinks at every 

 step ankle-deep, covers the entire country, and makes traveling 

 very tedious for a pedestrian. Several species of grass grow 

 everywhere in patches, and if more sunlight were to fall upon 

 these cold, moist places, where vegetation now springs up every 

 year in such (juantities, but of such inferior quality, hay might 

 be cured, and it might be called a fair grazing-country ; but al- 

 though the islands would amply support herds of cattle and 

 flocks of sheep during the summer-months, these animals 

 would generally need shelter and feed for three to five months 



