KAMTSCHATKA. 2^3 



exception of three, who prolonged their lives with 

 a poor clay, which they discovered. We received 

 a specimen of this mineral at Oonalashka, which 

 had been brought there by previous navigators; it 

 is in the European collections. 



Islands like these, and so near to inhabited 

 coasts, would not have remained uninhabited had 

 they been in the Great Ocean. 



We shall unite St. Lawrence Island, and the 

 two shores of Beering's Strait, in one point of 

 view. They are formed of the same primitive 

 mountains, and the same Flora is spread over 

 them. These countries lie between the latitude of 

 Christian Sound, and Donna oe on the Norwegian 

 coast, or Hernosand and Tornea on the Swedish, 

 in the Gulf of Bothenia. 



St. Lawrence Bay is a frith of the Asiatic coast, 

 which penetrates into the mountains; the back- 

 ground of which is formed by eminences with 

 naked rocky declivities. The kind of rock is pri- 

 mitive limestone. 



The Alpine or arctic Flora, which here adorns the 

 foot of the mountain, does not seem to crown their 

 summits, even when free from snow ; and while 

 the clefts where the snow has melted are adorned 

 with the richest vegetation, the dry ridges and de- 

 clivities of piled masses of rock are scarcely tinged 

 with grey and black lichen. 



The mountains in this wintry climate, uncovered 

 and unprotected by vegetation, moulder and decay. 



u i 



