20 , ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



The seaweeds are exceedingly varied and abundant here, great heaps 

 of their assorted fronds are tossed up by every gale to rot upon the 

 beaches. 



Dimensions and contour of the islands. — Until my arrival on 

 the seal islands in April, 1872, no stejjs had evei- been taken by any 

 man whomsoever toward ascertaining the extent and real importance 

 of these interests of the Government ; the Russians nevei" having made 

 even an ai^proximate survey of the land, while our own people did no 

 better. I was ver}^ much surprised, immediately after landing, and 

 calling for a map of the island of St. Paul, to have an odd sketch, 

 traced from an old Russian chart, placed before me,, that my eye 

 stamped instantly as grotesque, by the land bearings which I took out 

 of my window on the spot. It was a matter of no special concern, 

 however, to the Russians; had it l)een, doubtless they would have 

 accurately surveyed the whole field. But it was and is quite different 

 with us; and that no agent of the Treasury Department, or other 

 branches of the Gi-overnment, had, up to the date of my arrival, given 

 it the slightest thought or attention, struck me as rather strange. It 

 was, as it is, and ever will be, a matter of first importance to a correct 

 and succinct understanding of the subject, and it was the first thing 

 about which I busied myself. I present, therefore, with this memoir, 

 a careful chart of each island and the contiguous islets, which are the 

 first surveys ever made upon the ground having the slightest pre- 

 tension to accuracy.^ The reader will observe, as he turns to these 

 maps, the striking dissimilarity which exists between them, not only 

 in contour, but in physical structure, the island of St. Paul being the 

 largest in superficial area, and receiA'ing a vast majority of the pinni- 

 pedia that belong to both. As it lies in Bering Sea to-day, this island 

 is in its greatest length, between northeast and southwest points, 13 

 miles, air line; and a little less than G at points of greatest width. It 

 has a superficial area of about 33 square miles, or 21,120 acres, of 

 diversified, rough, and rocky uplands, rugged hills, and smooth, vol- 

 canic cones, which either set down boldly to the sea or fade out into 

 extensive wet and mossy flats, passing at the sea margins into dr^^, 

 drifting, sand-dune tracts. It has -12 miles of shore line, and of this 

 coast 1G4^ miles are hauled over by fur seals e}i masse. At the time 

 of its first upheaval above the sea it doubtless presented the appear- 

 ance of ten or twelve small rocky, bluffy islets and points, upon some 

 of which were craters that vomited breccia and cinders, with little or 

 no lava overflowing. Active plutonic agency must have soon ceased 

 after this elevation, and then the sea around about commenced the 

 work which it is now engaged in : of building on tlie skeleton thus 

 created; and it has j)rogressed to-day so thoroughl}^ and successfully 

 in its labor of sand shifting, together with the aid of ice floes, in their 

 action of grinding, lifting, and shoving, that nearly all of these scattered 

 islets within the present area of the island, and marked by its bluffs 

 and higher uplands, are completely bound together by ro^jes of sand, 

 changed into enduring bans and ridges of water-worn bowlders. These 

 are raised above the highest tides by winds that whirl the sand up, 

 over, and on them, as it drives out from the wash of the surf and from 

 the interstices of the rocks, lifted up and pushed by ice fields. 



Land and scenery.— The sand which plaj^s so important a i:)art in 

 the formation of the island of St. Paul, and which is almost entirely 



' These surveys have since been confirmed and elaborated by 11. W. Mclntyre, 

 of the Alaska Commercial Company, and Lieut. Washburn Maynard, U. S. N, • 



