ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 231 



The following species of algte were collected in 1872-73, by the 

 author : 



MELANOSPERMiE. 



(All called "Kapoosta;" natives.) 



Fucus vesiculosus. Common; anchored in large beds. 



Nereocystis liitkeanus. (" Sea-otter raits.") Common. 



Alaria esculenta. Common. This has been used by the Pribilof natives as an 



article of food relish. 

 Chordaria flagelliformis. Common. 

 Elachista fuciola. Common. 



RHODOSPERMiB. 



Polysiphonia. Rare. 

 Melobesia polymorpha. Common. 

 Melobesia lichenoides. Common. 

 Delesseria. Rare. 

 Peyssonnelia. Common. 

 Collishamnion. Common. 



CHLOROSPERMiE. 



Cladophora uncialis. Common. 



Conferva capillaris. Common (fresh-water lakes and pools). 

 Nostochinea. Common (fresh-water lakes and pools). 

 Ulva latissima. Common. 



The above names do not pretend to specify the entire list that will be 

 found here, but they simply indicate those varieties which are dominant. 



Luxuriance and variety of the seaweeds. — The extent and 

 luxuriance, variety and beauty of the algse forests of these waters of 

 Bering Sea which lave the coasts of the Pribilof group call for more 

 detail of description than space in this memoir will allow, since any- 

 thing like a fair presentation of the subject would require the repro- 

 duction of my water-colored drawings. After the heavier gales, 

 especially the southeasters in October, if the naturalist will take the 

 trouble to pace the sand beach between Lukannon and Northeast Point 

 of St. Paul Island, he will be rewarded by a memorable sight. He will 

 find thrown up by the surf a vast windrow of kelp along the whole 8 

 or 10 miles of this walk, heaped, at some spots, nearly as high as his 

 head; the large trunks of Melanospenna', the small but brilliant red 

 and crimson fronds of Bhodosperma' interwoven with the emerald green 

 leaves of the Ghlorospermw. The first-named group is by far the most 

 abundant, and upon its decaying, fermenting brown and ocher heaps 

 he will see countless numbers of a buccinoid whelk, and a limni©a, 

 feeding as they bore or suck out myriads of tiny holes in the leaf fronds 

 of the strong, growing species. 



Sea anemones and starfishes. — Actinias or sea anemones occur, 

 together with numerous starfishes; many jelly-fishes are also inter- 

 woven and heaped up with the " kapoosta" or sea cabbages just referred 

 to; also, a quantity of rosy "sea squirts" and yellow "sea cucumbers." 



Confervoid rugs and carpets. — On the old killing fields, on those 

 spots where the sloughing carcasses of repeated seasons have so enriched 

 the soil as to render it like fire to most vegetation, a silken green Gon- 

 fervm grows luxuriantly. This terrestrial algoid covering appears here 

 and there, on these grounds, like so many door mats of pea-green wool. 

 That confervoid flourishes only on those spots where nothing but pure 

 decaying animal matter is found. An admixture of sand or earth will 

 always supplant it by raising up instead those strong-growing grasses 

 which I have alluded to elsewhere, and which constitute the chief 

 botanical life on the killing grounds. 



