CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 5c 
of them throughout the summer season. Along the coast of Siberia from just north of Bering 
Straits to wherever the shore is low and bordered by lagoons or shallow river mouths, occur the 
Steller’s and the King Hider in great numbers. According to Nordenskiéld the Emperor Goose 
also visits this coast. At Tapkan we found Steller’s Eider in excessive abundance during our 
stay there, as detailed in the following pages. The Alaskan coast, from Icey Cape to Point 
Barrow, is also frequented by the King Eider in great abundance. 
The Kotzebue Kittiwake nest in large numbers upon a small rocky islet just off Chamisso 
Island at the head of the Kotzebue Sound, and also upon the cliffs bordering the northern shore 
of Norton Sound in Bering Sea, especially those at Cape Darby and Cape Denbigh. Adams’s Loon 
is found rather commonly upon the rivers flowing into the head of Kotzebue Sound, especially 
along the Kunguk. 
Some small rocky islets in the middle of Akutan Pass near Unalaska, in the Aleutian Islands, 
are the breeding places of the beautiful little Forked-tailed petrel; and the coast line of Alaska 
from Cape Vancouver to the middle of the Yukon delta is the great breeding-ground of the 
Emperor geese. From the northern border of the Yukon delta north to Norton Bay the Spectacled 
Eider breeds among the brackish water lagoons and ponds where the shore is flat and marshy. 
North of Saint Michaels, however, this species is rare, occurring in its greatest abundance between 
Saint Michaels and the Yukon mouth. 
The principal sources from which information has been derived, in addition to my own 
observations, have been Dall and Bannister’s list of birds in the “Transactions of the Chicago 
Academy of Sciences” for 1869, and Dr. Coues’ Ornithology of the Pribylov Islands in Elliott’s 
“Condition of Affairs in Alaska,” Treasury Department, 1874. 
The seasons of navigation upon the two shores of Bering Sea are usually somewhat uneven, the 
ice remaining longer in spring upon the Alaskan coast than it does on the Siberian shore; and the 
reverse in autumn, when the ice from the Arctic forces its way through Bering Strait and fills the 
western portion of this sea for some distance before ice commences to form on the east coast. On 
shore we have the reverse, and in the spring of 1881, when we left Saint Michaels, the last of June, 
the hills were covered with green grasses, and willows and alders were commencing to show their 
summer foliage, while numerous northern flowers were already in blossom. Only a rare patch of 
snow was to be seen here and there on the distant hillsides, and summer was apparently at hand. 
When we reached the Siberian coast, however, winter still appeared in force, and the snow reached 
from the tops of the highest hills to the water’s edge in immense banks and drifts, although many 
places where the snow or wind had opportunity to exert its influence showed the bare lichen-covered 
rocks; but the vegetation was extremely backward, only just commencing to start, in fact. This, 
however, is accounted for from the fact that the waters of western Bering Sea are deeper and far 
colder than those of the eastern shore in summer, where the shallow water and great amount of 
warm fresh water brought down by the numerous rivers flowing into the sea change the tempera- 
ture very rapidly and at the same time rapidly affect the surrounding atmosphere. On the Siber- 
ian coast, on the contrary, the ice is swept away by the strong currents which flow north and in 
spring carrying with it ice, leaving the coast free from the latter, but at the same time surrounding 
the shores with water at an icy temperature which falls but little throughout the summer. The 
basin-like character of Norton Sound, as also of Kotzebue Sound in the Arctic, aid in giving them 
a much milder climate than their northern location would indicate. 
The coast of Bering Sea from the Yukon mouth north to Bering Strait is broken occasionally 
by rugged cliffs, but, as a rule, is low and undulating, and covered with grass and mosses, inter- 
spersed with ponds, where the various species of fresh-water fowl breed. Along the beach is strewn 
great quantities of driftwood, which comes from the Yukon freshets, but trees occur only along a 
small portion of the coast extending from the vicinity of Unalakleet north around the coast to near 
Cape Darby, where the spruces are found in some places within a few yards of tide-water. From 
this point north not a tree approaches within miles of the coast-line. At the head of Kotzebue 
Sound a few spruces may be seen on the sides of distant mountains, and beyond this the country 
has the peculiarly barren Arctic appearance. At the head of the Kotzebue Sound a species of tall 
grass grows in considerable abundance; but leaving this sound to the north the coast becomes 
