292 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



from advt'iituiers in quest of the rich furs which it furnished. There 

 are also the pizetteers aud geographies, but they are less instructive 

 ou this head thau usual, being founded on iuformatiou now many 

 years old. 



Perhaps uo region of equal extent on theglobe, unless we except 

 58 the interior of Africa or possibly Greenland, is as little known. 

 Here I do not speak for myself alone. A learned German, whom 

 I have already quoted, after saying that the ex])lorati<)ns have been 

 limited to the coast, testifies that "the interior, not only of the conti- 

 nent, bui even of the Islaud of Sitka, is to day unex[)l()red, and is in 

 every resi)ect terra incognita.''^ The sa-me has been repeated of the 

 islands also. Admiral Liitke, whose circumnavigation of the globe 

 began in ISl'S, and whose work bears date in 1835, says of the Aleutian 

 Archipelago that, " although frequented for more than a century by 

 llussian vessels ;ind those of other nations, it is today almost as little 

 known as in the time of Cook." Another writer of authority, the com- 

 piler of the official work on the "People of Eussia," pul)lished as late 

 as 1802, si^eaks of the interior as " a mystery." And yet another says 

 that our ignorance with regard to this region would make it a proijer 

 scene for a cha})ter of " Gulliver's Travels." 



Where so little was known there m as scoi)e for invention. Imagina- 

 tion was made to sup])ly the place of knowledge, and poetry pictured 

 the savage desolation in much-admired verse. Oam])bell, ni the "Pleas- 

 ures of Hope," while exploring " earth's loneliest bounds and ocean's 

 wildest shore," leaches this region, which he portrays: 



Lo! to the wiutry winds the jiilot yields, 

 His bark careering o'er unfathonied fields. 

 Now far lie sweejis, where scarce a suuinicr smiles, 

 On Behring's rocks, or Greenland's naked isles; 

 Cold ou his inidiiiyht watch the breezes blow. 

 From wastes that slumber in eternal snow, 

 And waft across the wave's tumultuous roar 

 The wolf's long howl from Ounalaska's shore. 



All of which, so far, at least, as it describes this region, is inconsistent 

 with the truth. The poet ignores the isothermal line, wiiich [)lays such 

 a coiis})iciu)US part on tlie Pacific coast. Here the evidence is ])ositive. 

 Porth)ck, the navigator, who was there toward the close of the last 

 centiuy, after describing Cook's Inlet, which is several degrees north 

 of Ounahiska, records his belief " that tlie climate here is not so severe 

 as has been generally supi)osed; for in the course of trallic with the 

 natives they fretpiently brouglit berries of several sorts, and in i>ar- 

 ticular black berries e(]ually fine with those met with in l*]nglaud." 

 ("Voyage," p. 118.) Kotzebue, who was here later, records tliat he 

 found the weather "pretty warm at Ounalaska." ("Voyage," vol. i, 

 p. 275.) South of the Aleutians the climate is warmer still. The poet 

 ignores natural history also as regards the distribution of animals. 

 Curiously enough, it does not appear that there are "wolves" on any 

 of tlic Ah'utians. Coxe, in his work on Kussian discoveries (]). 174), 

 records that "reindeer, beais, ivolrcs, and ice-foxes are not to be found 

 on these islands," P»ut he was never there. Meares, who was in those 

 seas, says " the onli/ airimals on these islands are foxes, sonu'. of which 

 are black." (" V^oyage," vol. i, p. 10.) Cook, who was at Ounahiska 

 twice, and once made a ])rolonged stay, expressly says, "foxes and 

 weasels were the 07ihj (jHadrnpcih that we saw; they told us that they 

 had hares also." ("Voyage," vol. ii, p. 518.) But quadru])eds like 

 these hardly sustain the exciting picture. The same exi)erienced navi- 

 gator furnishes a glimpse of the inhabitants as they appeared to him, 



