10 BULLETIN OF THE UISITEU STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



with some degree of acciii-iicy, but not even Makarof iu tlie Vitiaz seems to have been 

 I)rovideil with an apparatus tit to take souudiugs deeper than 400 fathoms. The 

 soundings which lie made iu the passage alhided to, therefore, only prove that it is 

 deeper than M)0 fathoms, but how much we are unable to say. True, we find on the 

 Russian ny<lrographic Department chart No. 1454 (Vost. Okeaii, Bering. Mor.) two 

 definite soundings, viz, 390 fathoms iu 5;!° 41' north hititude and 163° -iV east longi- 

 tude, but this being station No. 109 of the Yitiaz, and therefore in all probability taken 

 from its records, we liud upon turniug to the latter that bottom was not found at 713 

 meters, or 390 fathoms. The other sounding on the same chart is 400 fathoms in 54° 

 45' north latitude and 102° 50' east longitude. By examining the records of the Yitiaz 

 we find no soundings taken by that vessel in that latitude, but we find ou the other 

 hand that station No. 113 was in 53° 45' north latitude and 102° 50' east longitude, 

 and that a sounding was there taken with the result that bottom was not touched in 

 732 meters, or 400 fathoms. The above figures are too close not to make it almost 

 absolutely certain that by a clerical error the sounding in question was plotted a whole 

 degree too far north and the dash witli the dot over left out. 



In the chart of the western portion of Bering Sea which 1 have prepared and 

 appended herewitli (pi. 1), the 100-fathom curve around the Commander Islands is 

 drawn for the first time with some pretensions to accuracy. Even in some recent 

 imblications it is asserted that the Commander Islands "belong to the Kamcihatka 

 system. Copper Island resting just within tlie 100-fathom curve from the Asiatic 

 coast." On the contrary, we know now that the sea between tlie mainland and the 

 islands is over 400 fathoms deep. Ou my map they are conuected with the peninsula 

 of Kamchatlva by the 500-f;ithom curve, but even that is only conjectural, though 

 probable. The deep-sea soundings of the Albatross are here first shown on any map 

 of the region, as well as the curves connecting them with the Tuscarora soundings of 

 1874. It will thus be seen that nearly all our knowledge of the bottom in this part of 

 the sea is due to ships belonging to the United States.' 



The curves of the various depths from 100 fathoms down to 2,000 fathoms and 

 over are, as a matter of necessity, highly conjectural. In the northeastern section of 

 the map they appear even somewhat problematical, in view of the fact that a series 

 of shallow soundings running southwest from Cape Oliutorski, on the charts of the 

 United States Hydrograjihic Otfice, have been left out of consideration altogether. 

 The reason is that the series is crossed by the deep soundings of the Alhotrcss on her 

 return passage from the Commander Islands in 1895 in such a manner that it is 

 impossible to reconcile them. They may possibly belong farther west — a not unreason- 

 able supposition, since the determination of the longitude of the various coasts and 

 promontories in that part of the world is in such utter confusion'^ that a resurvey 

 of the whole coast from Petropaulski to Providence, or Plover, Bay is imperatively 

 demanded. 



' I find on Berghaiis's "Chart of the World on Mercator's Projection " a sounding of 2,700 fathoms 

 indicated in (apjirox.) latitude 56^ 40' north and longitude 168° 20' east, the authority for whicli I am 

 ignorant of. It is situated almost in a line between the 1895 Albatross soundings of 2,137 and l,8(i6 

 fathoms, and if correct would indicate a depression below the general level of about 2,100 fathoms iu 

 that part of Bering Sea. 



- \Vitues8 the fact that the various charts of the region for more than ten years have borne the 

 following inscription: "The co.ast of Kamchatka north of Cape Koslof is reported to bo charted 15 

 miles too far east." Yet nothing has been done to clear up the doubt. 



