1898] 8 I 



AN OTTAWA NATURALIST'S JOURNEY 

 WESTWARD. 



III. — The Aleutian Islands and Behring Sea. 



By Andrew Halkett^ 

 Marine and Fisheries Department. 



The Aleutian Islands present unusual physical features. 

 Some are craggy and barren, but many, although wholly devoid 

 of trees, are densely covered with a low growth vegetation ; such 

 floral forms as irises, blue-bells, anemones, daisies, &c., growing 

 in rich profusion, and lending a charm to the islands. I arose 

 between three and four o'clock one morning to see the Entrance 

 to Captain's Bay. That was a dreary dismal morning in a wild 

 place. A very heavy mist hovered over the precipitous rocks, 

 between which appeared intervening spaces of verdure. A few 

 hours later the vessel anchored at Dutch Harbour, near the 

 village of Unalaska. 



This village is an interesting and picturesque place. It is 

 situated in the midst of mountains in a beautiful bay. An 

 ornament to the village is a neat little Russo-Greek church. It 

 is a wooden structure, built in a somewhat oriental style, having, 

 instead of spires domes with crosses on their tops. The Russo- 

 Greek ritual, a very ancient form of nominal Christianity, and a 

 most imposing ceremonial, is the recognized religion of the 

 Aleuts. 



I was delighted to see in this far-off village, a domesticated 

 flock of Canadian Geese {Bernicla canadensis) comprising four- 

 teen fine birds, but they were by no means so handsome as the 

 specimens of this goose at the Central Experimental Farm. 

 Apparently they were of the variety known as the Smaller 

 White Cheeked Goose {B. c. lencopana). 



At the village, and around the island of Unalaska were 

 numbers of Ravens {Corvus corax, L.), and as I found the broken 

 tests of sea-urchins at considerable distances from the sea, it is 



