40 Appendix. 



would look something like a series of steps. The highest beach 

 is about 1 2 feet above high water mark. Between the two we 

 have three distinct beaches. Of these the last is undoubtedly 

 recent, the result of an unusually heavy storm. The next is com- 

 paratively recent, for it is not yet covered with grass and other 

 vegetation, except Mertensia., Hoiikciiya, and a few similar beach 

 plants, which also cover a part of one below. 



Thus we have nine successive beaches, gradually rising from 

 the west to the east. 



At least one other similar set of beaches is found on the 

 island. These are in a curve of high lands, partially protected 

 from the action of the surf. The beaches are much more nu- 

 merous, and rather more irregular than in the preceding case. 



Evidence to the same effect is found in a water-worn aich- 

 way of rocks near the southern end of Amaknak. It is about lo 

 feet wide and 15 feet high, and passes through a wall of rock 50 

 feet high. It shows every evidence in its smoothed sides and 

 graveled floor of being made by the action of waves, but its 

 floor now stands 10 feet above high water mark, and is fairly out 

 of reach of the highest surf. 



Recent sea-urchins, shells, etc., are often found on the rocky 

 hills 50 to 500 feet above the water level, but they have, in most 

 cases, been undoubtedly brought there by birds. The writer has 

 often seen ravens carrying them to such places. They raise the 

 shells and similar objects 40 or 50 feet above the surface, and 

 then drop them on rocks to break them open. The presence of 

 such objects, except in strata, could hardly be taken as evidence 

 if the elevation of the land. 



Captain Hennig, one of the agents of the Alaska Commer- 

 cial Company, who has lived in the Territory some years, in- 

 formed the writer of the following facts: A harbor on Atka 

 Island, one of the Middle Aleutians, in which not many years 

 ago there was plenty of water, is now so completely shoaled that 

 boats cannot enter. An island just south of the point of Alaska, 

 formerly separated from the peninsula, is now connected with it 

 by a neck of land four feet above high water. The writer has 



