The last of June, 1551, the United States revenue steamer Corwin reached Saint Michaels, 
Alaska, on her cruise to Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The object of this cruise was to search 
the various accessible portions of the Aretic for traces of the Jeannette and two missing whaling 
vessels which were lost the same season that the Jeannette entered the ice. Through the courtesy 
of the Secretary of the Treasury, | was taken on board and accompanied the Corwin throughout 
the remainder of the season. 
On June 21, we left Saint Michaels and crossed Bering Sea to Saint Lawrence Island and Plover 
Bay on the Siberian coast: thence along this coast through the Straits and northwest in the Arctic 
to the vicinity of Nordenski6ld’s winter quarters, where we took on board a sledge party which had 
been left there earlier in the season to search the coast in that district. Thence we returned again 
to Saint Lawrence Island and to Saint Michaels. After remaining here a short time, we returned to 
the Arctic, touching at all the islands in Bering Straits; and during the remainder of the summer 
visited in succession the entire Alaskan coast line from Bering Straits to Point Barrow, including 
Kotzebue Sound and on the Siberian shore from the Straits to North Cape. We also cruised along 
the edge of the ice-pack, landing upon Herald and Wrangel Islands. On September 14, we passed 
through Bering Straits bound south; and after remaining some time at Ounalaska in the Aleutian 
islands, fitting the vessel for a voyage to San Francisco, we left, October 4, homeward bound. 
The observations on which the present paper is based were made both during the eruise just 
detailed, and in addition are the results of observations made by myself duriug over four years’ 
residence at Saint Michaels, and explorations carried on in various directions from that point. In 
addition, I have used information obtained from various reports which have been issued regarding 
the region in question, so far as the limited time at my disposal would allow. 
The species given for the Alaskan coast and the islands of Bering Sea are almost, or quite, a 
complete list of the birds found there; but the species mentioned upon the Siberian coast form 
only asmall quota of those occurring in that region. This is mainly due to the little that is known 
concerning that region and the inaccessibility of its literature. 
The Arctic waters lying between Greenland and Europe on the southeast, and America on the 
southwest, have been visited by so many naturalists accompanying the various exploring and 
other expeditions, that the vertebrate fauna, at least,,.has become pretty well known. This is 
certainly true as regards the distinction of most of the species, though the life histories of many 
undoubtedly yet require the patient research of some enthusiastic student ready to face the dis- 
comfort, and often misery, entailed by such work in boreal regions. 
Leaving this comparatively well-trodden field, however, where is the naturalist who is pre- 
pared to state authoritatively just what is found at other portions, or on other coasts of this 
great frozen ocean? The reply is simple, for as yet no one has been able to do more than to touch 
at some remote corners of the coast; or a vessel’s prow may have pressed into the shifting ice-pack 
a short distance only to be rebuffed or else caught and held in an unyielding grasp. 
Exceptionally favorable opportunities of the writer in the unknown region of Bering Sea and 
the adjoining portion of the Arctic Ocean to the north have been detailed in the present paper, 
with such other information as could be obtained from other sources; as we visited all parts of the 
basin lying to the south of the solid ice-pack, and between Alaska on the east and south, Bering 
Straits and part of Siberia completing the southern limit, and the same portion of Siberia and 
Wrangel Island forming, with the ice-pack, the western border. Within this area, visiting all the 
shores named, among which as specially noteworthy may be mentioned Herald and Wrangel 
Islands, respecting which the only knowledge existing was that two bodies of land were known to 
lie there, one of which, in fact, was previously considered almost mythical till the work of the 
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