14 SKETCH OF BERING SEA. 



Southern boaiid- or-QQ2,j..^p]^0j.g ^S a part of tllG SaiHG chaill.^ 

 ary. Aleutuiu Is- ^ o ^ ^ 



lands. From the Commander Islands to the Asiatic 



coast the distance is one hundred and ten miles 

 The largest of the Aleutian Islands are Uni- 

 mak, Unalaska, and Umnak, the two former 

 being about seventy-five miles long. The straits 

 or passes separating the islands are of various 

 widths, those in the easterly half being gener- 

 ally narrow and but few of them available for 

 navigation. The most important are Unimak 

 Pass, eleven miles wide, and Amukta or 

 '^ Seventy— two " Pass, forty-tw^o itiiles wide. 

 The entire chain is of volcanic origin, and lofty 

 peaks rise from most of the islands. Some 

 Alaskan or Aleutian crater is almost constantly 

 in activity. More than thirty mountains have 

 at various times been reported active, and new 

 islands have been tlu-own up by volcanic action 

 since the discovery of the region by the Russians.^ 

 isLands in Bering The chicf islauds lying" within Bering Sea are 



Sea. ^ » o ^ 



the following: St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nuni- 



vak, Karaginski, and the Pribilof Islands. 



Large portion A peculiar feature of Bering Sea is the ext en- 

 very shallow. •*■ 



sive bank of soundings which stretches off for 

 two hundred and fifty or more miles from the 



'Vivien de Saint-Martin, Nouveau Dictionnaire de G6ographie 

 nniverselle, Paris, 1879, vol. I, p. 416; Encyclopiodia of Geog- 

 raphy, revised ed., Philadelphia, 1838, vol. Ill, p. 344. 



•^ Koclus, vol. XV, p. 202; North Pac. Dir., p. 498 et mj. 



