ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 13 



across the horizon, owe their striking brilliancy of color and prismatic 

 tones to that low declination of the sun due to the latitude. What- 

 ever the cause may be, and this is not the place to discuss it, certainly 

 no other spot on earth can boast of a more striking and brilliant cloud 

 display. In the season of 1865-66, when I was encamped on this same 

 parallel of latitude in the mountains eastward of Sitka and the inte- 

 rior, I was particularly attracted by the exceeding brilliancy, persist- 

 ency, and activity of the aurora; but here on St. Paul, though I 

 eagerly looked for its dancing light, it seldom appeared; and when it 

 did, it was a sad disappointment, the exhibition always being insig- 

 nificant when comj)ared in my mind with that flashing of my previous 

 experience. A quaint old writer,^ a hundred years ago, when describ- 

 ing Norway and its people, called attention to what he considered a 

 very plausible theory as to the cause of the aurora. He cited an 

 ancient sage who believed that the change of the winds threw the 

 saline particles of the sea high into the air, and then, by aerial fric- 

 tion, "fermentation" took place, and the light was evolved! I am 

 sure that the saline jiarticles of Bering Sea were whirled into the air 

 during the whole of that winter of my residence there, but no "fer- 

 mentation" occurred, evidently, for rarely indeed did the aurora greet 

 my eyes. In the summer season there is considerable lightning; you 

 will see it streak its zigzag path mornings, evenings, and even noon- 

 days, but from the dark clouds and their swelling masses upon which 

 it is portrayed no sound returns; afidgur hridwm, in fact. I remem- 

 ber hearing but one clap of thunder while in that country. If I recol- 

 lect aright, and my Russian served me well, one of the old natives 

 told me that it was no mystery, this liglit of the aurora, foj', said he, 

 "we all believe that there are fire mountains away up toward the 

 north, and Avhat we see comes from their burning throats, mirrored 

 back on the heavens." 



Geological structure. — The formation of these islands, St. Paul 

 and St. George, was recent, geologically speaking, and directly due to 

 volcanic agency, which lifted them abruptly, though gradually, from 

 the sea bed. Little spouting craters then activelj^ poured out cinders 

 and other volcanic breccia upon the table bed of basalt, depositing 

 below as well as above the water's level as they rose, and subsequently 

 finishing their work of construction through the agency of these spout 

 holes or craters, from whicli water-puddled ashes and tufa were 

 thrown. Soon after the elevation and dejiosit of the igneous matter, 

 all active volcanic action must have ceased, though a few half- 

 smothered outbursts seem to have occurred very recently indeed; 

 for on Bobrovia or Otter Island, 6 miles southward of St. Paul, is the 

 fresh, clearly blown-out throat, with the fire-scorched and smoked, 

 smooth, sharp-cut, funnel-like walls of a crater. This is the only 

 place on the sea islands where there are any evidences of recent dis- 

 charges from the crater of a volcano. 



Since the period of the upheaval of the group under discussion the 

 sea has done much to modify and even enlarge the most important 

 one, St. Paul, while the others, St. George and Otter, being lifted 

 abruptly above the power of water and ice to carry and deposit sand, 

 soil, and bowlders, are but little changed from the condition of their 

 first appearance. 



Vegetation. — The Russians tell a rather strange story in connec- 

 tion with Pribilof's landing. They say that both the islands were 



^Pontoppidan. 



