2G HULLETIN OF THK UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



iiifulal plant of this luriiiatioii is Empetrum nigrum, richly interspersed with Loiseleuria 

 procunihinx^ Caxxiojie lycojxxloides and other ericaceoiis plants, chiefly Brydiilhus, and 

 in the lower portions lihododcndron vhrysanthum. Where the ground is marshy the 

 salmon berry, Rubm vhanuvmorm, is rather common. Higher up on the mountain 

 sides the vegetation grows more and more scanty and alpine in character. 



The pelagic fora around Bering Island has been studied by Dr. F. E. Kjellman 

 (Kgl. Svenska Yeteusk. Akad. Handling., (n. s.), xxiii, 1889, No. 8, 58 pp., 7 pis), who 

 observes that at Bering Island all conditions are found favorable to the development 

 of a rich tlora of algw of the pelagic type. "It may even be said witli safety that there 

 are but few parts of tlie ocean the flora of which exceeds or even approaches that 

 around Bering Island, iu so far as multitude of individuals or number of magnificent 

 forms are concerned." 



NATIVE POPULATION OF THE COMMANDER ISLANDS. 



The Commander Islands, when discovered iu 1741, were uninhabited, and no trace 

 of any former population has been found. For over 80 years the islands remained 

 without a regular population, although they were visited almost yearly up to the end of 

 the eighteenth century by numerous parties of Eussian fur-hunters, or promyshleniks, 

 as they are called. In the early days it was the custom of these hardy frontiersmen to 

 pass the first winter on Bering Island in order to secure provisions of sea-cow meat for 

 their further expeditions. Sometimes the crews of several vessels wintered there at 

 the same time, in one year at least (1754-55) numbering over 100 men. Those were 

 gay days on Bering Island, when the sea cow, the sea-otter, the blue fox, and the fur- 

 seal were still jilentiful. But tliese precious animals were soon exterminated, literally, 

 as the sea-cow, or commercially, as the three other species, and the inhospitable and 

 dangerous shores of the Commander Islands were but seldom visited by sailors or 

 hunters. 



When the colonial district of Atkha was established by the Eussian-American 

 Company, in 182(i, it was decided to locate a number of natives from the other 

 Aleutian Islands, and consequently two colonies of Aleuts and half-breeds, the 

 ort'spring of Eussian promyshleniks and Aleut women, were planted on Bering and 

 Copper islands. A similar colonj-, located on the Kuril Islands, was made up mostly 

 from natives of the Kadiak district. The colony of Bering Island consisted chiefly of 

 natives of Atkha Island, or the Andreanovski group, in general, while the Copper 

 islanders were made up mostly of men and women from Attn. Although the inhabi- 

 tants of the two islands by transfer and intermarriage have become considerably mixed 

 of late, yet the difference iu origin is still traceable in the dialects spoken, the Atkha 

 people still pre])onderating on Bering Island, tlie Attn islanders on C'opper Island. 



Of late years two other elements have been added to the native population. As 

 noted above, the Eussian-American Company had located a colony of natives, mostly 

 from the Kadiak district, on the Kuril Islands. When the latter islands were ceded 

 to Japan these natives and their offspring declared their intention of remaining Eus- 

 sian subjects and were transferred to Kamchatka. After a miserable existence for 

 several years iu a small village outside of Petropaulski, they were located on the east 

 coast near Cape Lopatka, in order to hunt sea-otters. Their village was situated in a 



