ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 229 



produce by growth has been as difficult to detenninejis it is to find evi- 

 dence of increased altitude to the mountains around them since these 

 Sitkan trees were planted, with pious hope, at their feet fifty years ago. 

 Though I can readily understand why the salmon berries of Unalaska 

 should not do well on the seal islands (still I think they would at the 

 Garden Cove of St. George), nevertheless I believe that the whortleber- 

 ries of that section would thrive at many places if carefully transplanted 

 to these localities, on the southern slopes of Cemetery Eidge at Zapadnie, 

 the southern slopes of Telegraph Hill, and eastern fall of Tolstoi Penin- 

 sula down to the shore of the lagoon. They might also do well set out 

 at picked places about the Big Lake and on Northeast Point, around 

 the little lake thereon. If these bushes really throve here they would 

 be the means of adding greatly to the comfort of the inhabitants, for 

 the Unalaska whortleberry is an exceeding pleasant, juicy fruit, large 

 and well adapted for canning and preserving. Having less sunshine 

 here than at Illoolook, it may not ripen up as well flavored, but would, 

 I think, succeed. The roots of the plants, when brought up from Una 

 laska in April or early May, should be kept moist by wet moss wrap- 

 pings from the moment they are first taken up until they are reset, 

 with the tops well pruned back, on the Pribilof Islands. The experi- 

 ment is surely Avorth all the trouble of making, and I hope it will be 

 undertaken. 



The characteristic "talneek:" Salix. — The only suggestion 

 of a tree found growing on the Pribilof group is the hardy '^talneek" or 

 creeping willow; there are three species of tlie genus Salix found here, 

 viz, reticulata, polaris, and arctica ; the first named is the most common 

 and of largest growth; it progresses exactly as a cucumber vine does 

 in our gardens; as soon as it has made from the seed a sprout of 6 inches 

 or a foot uiirigbt from the soil, then it droops over and crawls along 

 prostrate upon the earth, rocks, and sphagnum; some of the largest 

 talneek trunks will measure 8 or 10 feet in decumbent length along the 

 ground, and are as large around the stumi) as an average wrist of man. 

 The usual size, however, is very, very much less, while the stems of 

 polaris and arctica scarcely ever reach the diameter of a pencil case, or 

 the procumbent length of li feet. 



Although Ruhiis chamwmorus is a tree shrub, and is found here very 

 commonly distributed, yet it grows such a slender, diminutive bush, 

 that it gives no thought whatever of its being anything of the sort. 

 The herbs, grasses, and ferns tower above it on all sides. 



Familiar and lovely flowering plants. — Perhaps no one plant 

 that flowers on the seal islands is more conspicuous or abundant than 

 is the Saxifraga opimsitifolia; it rises over all localities, rajik and tall 

 in rich locations, to stems scarcely 1 incli high on the thin, poor soil 

 of hill summits and sides; densely cespitose, with leaves all imbricated 

 in 4 rows; and flowers almost sessile. I think that at least 10 

 well-defined species of this order, Saxifragaceic exist on the Pribilof 

 grou]). The Eannnculacca' are not so numerous; but, still, a buttercup 

 growing in every low slope, where you may chance to wander, is always 

 a pleasant reminder of pastures at home; and, also, a suggestion of the 

 farm is constantly made by the luxuriant inflorescence of tlie wild mus- 

 tard, Crucifera'. The chickweed, GaryophyUacw, is well represented, 

 and also the familiar dandelion, Taraxacum jmlusfre. The lichens, 

 ThallopJiytes, and the mosses, Mnsci, are in their greatest exuberance 

 variety and beauty here; and myriads of yellow poppies, P«2Jrtrer^crt', 

 are nodding their graceful heads in the sweeping of the wind — they are 

 the first flowers to bloom, and the last to fade. 



