56d CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
nore and more barren, until from Iey Cape north it is a flat or slightly rolling monotonous stretch 
of Arctic bogs. 
At Plover Bay, on the Siberian shore, are low hills or mountains rising to 1,500 feet or 
move, almost sheer from the bay in many places, and made up of enormous masses of rock, down 
the sides of which the crumbling talus of splinters and fragments, weathered off, make the slopes 
difficult to surmount. About here the attractions for the birds are very small, and but few species 
except water fowl are found. On the north, towards Bering Strait, the coast is somewhat hilly; 
but only at East Cape, the easternmost point of Siberia, do we find it rising again to a rugged 
mountainous peak. Thence, again, along the northern coast the shore gradually becomes lower 
until it finally assumes the low undulating barren character of the Arctic tundra; nor does this 
last appear much more inviting to land birds than does the harsh faces of the broken and mount- 
ainous districts. The islands of Bering Sea, as are most islands frequented by sea-birds in the 
north, are enormous masses of rock apparently forced up out of the water, with almost precipitous 
sides, affording innumerable chinks and crevices wherein the birds find shelter and places for 
rearing their young; but with only a slight amount of vegetation, and much more familiar with 
cold fogs and icy storms at all seasons, than they are with clear skies or warm sunshiny days. 
In conclusion, I have only to express ny thanks for the courtesies rendered, first to General 
W. B. Hazen, Chief Signal Officer, and to the Secretary of the Treasury, through whose kind per- 
mission and co-operation I was enabled to accompany the Corwin; and also to Professor 8. I. 
Baird and Mr. R. Ridgway, of the Smithsonian Institution, for aid in the preparation of this report. 
BE. W. NELSON, 
Signal Service, U. S. A, 
WASHINGLON, May 18, 1883. 
