XV.] TOPORKOFF ISLAND. G17 



in vain attempting to induce them to take some food. One of 

 thorn was brought home in sj^irits for anatomical examination. 



The part of Behring Island which we saw forms a high plain 

 resting on volcanic rocks,^ which, however, is interrupted at 

 many places by deep kettle valleys, the bottoms of which are 

 generally occupied by lakes which communicate with the sea 

 by large or small rivers. The banks of the lakes and the 

 slopes of the hills are covered with a luxuriant vegetation, ricli 

 in long grass and beautiful flowers ; among them an iris culti- 

 vated in our gardens, the useful dark reddish-brown Sarana 

 lily, several orchids, two species of rhododendron with large 

 flowers, umbellifera as high as a man, sunflower-like synanthea, 

 &c. Quite another nature prevailed- on the island lying off 

 the haven, regarding which Dr. Kjellman and Dr. Stuxberg 

 make the following statements : — 



" Toporkoff Island is formed of an eruptive rock, which 

 everywhere rises along the shore some scores of feet from 

 high-water mark, in the form of steep cracked walls from live 

 to fifteen metres in height, which is different at different places. 

 Above these steep rock-walls the surface of the island forms 

 an even plain ; what lies below them forms a gently sloping- 

 beach. 



" This gently sloping beach consists of two well-marked belts ; 

 an outer devoid of all vegetation, an inner overgrown with 

 Ammadcnia pe23loides, Elymiis mollis, and two species of umbel- 

 lifera, Heradeum sihiricum, and Angelica archangclica, the two 

 last forming an almost impenetrable thicket fifty metres broad 

 and as high as a man, along the slope. The steep rock-walls 

 are coloured yellow at some places by lichens, mostly Caloiilaca 

 murorum and Ccd. crenulata ; at other places they are covered 

 pretty closely with Cochlcaria fcnestrata. The uppermost level 

 plain is covered with a close and luxuriant turf, over which 

 single stalks of the two species of umbellifera named above 

 raise themselves here and there. The vegetation on this little 

 island unites a very uncommon poverty in species with a high 

 degree of luxuriance. 



" Of the higher animals we saw only four kinds of birds, viz. 

 Fratercula cirrhata, a black guillemot (l/ria grylle var. columba), 

 a species of cormorant (Phalocrocorax) and a sort of gull 

 (Larus). Fratercula cirrhata lived here by millions. Thev 

 haunted the upper plain, where they had everywhere excavated 

 short, deep, and uncommonly broad passages to slee^j in, provided 



1 According to a statement by Mr. Grebnitski, tertiary fossils and coal 

 seams are also to be found on Behring Island, the former north of the 

 folony in tlie interior, the latter at the beach south of Behring's grave. 

 Also in the neiglibourhood of the colony the volcanic rock-masses are 

 under-stratified by thick sandy beds. 



