

ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 





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The Aleutians are treeless, fog- 

 bound, volcanic mountain tops ris- 

 ing from the sea. They extend in 

 a chain westward from the tip of 

 the Alaska Peninsula for about 

 1,100 miles in a long arc that places 

 the outermost island, Attu, within 

 600 miles of the Asiatic Kurile 

 Islands. Rain falls here in all sea- 

 sons, with an annual precipitation 

 of about 60 inches. The climate is 

 wet, cool, and windy, and the 

 islands, whose north-shore beaches 

 have great stands of beach rye, are 

 ice-free and open to year-round 

 navigation. 



Most striking feature of the Aleu- 

 tians is the number and variety of 

 sea birds. Representative are the 

 ducks, among which may be found 

 the Pacific harlequin, the king 

 eider, Steller's eider, the old squaw, 

 and the American scoter. Of the 

 gulls, the commonest is the glauc- 



ous-winged which feeds on the 

 prickly sea urchin. There are 

 jaegers, and puffins, murres, guille- 

 mots, and murrelets in countless 

 numbers. Along the rocky shores 

 are nearly 20 kinds of shore birds, 

 commonest of which are the Aleu- 

 tian sandpiper and the black oyster- 

 catcher. There are 17 varieties of 

 land birds, with the raven the most 

 conspicuous and the Alaskan long- 

 spur the commonest. A winter res- 

 ident is the emperor goose, which 

 natives call tsiesarka, a Russian 

 word meaning guinea hen. Asiatic 

 visitors are Swinhoe's wagtail and 

 the black-backed wagtail. 



Mammals of the Aleutians are 

 few, and are found on the eastern 

 islands. Blue foxes, transplanted 

 to certain islands under lease by the 

 Government to Aleut communities, 

 are the only large land mammal on 

 the outer islands, like Attu. On 

 Unimak Island, there are caribou, 

 brown bears, wolverines, and the 

 Alaska Peninsula hare, which turns 

 pure white in winter. There are 

 lemmings on some of the islands, 

 and the saddle-back shrew lives on 

 Unalaska. The Norway rat and 

 the house mouse, unfortunately, 

 have become established in all the 



