IX.] SLEDGING ACROSS THE ISLAND. 193 



There are two rookeries upon Bering Island, and of these we 

 resolved on visiting that at the northern end. The country to 

 the south is mountainous and broken, but here our way led over 

 great stretches of plateau land and ttlndra, through whose level 

 sea of yellow grass we hissed, exposed to a perfect shower-bath 

 of dewdrops. Our six sledges followed each other in Indian 

 file, and in the distance looked like a string of huge caterpillars 

 crossing the extensive plains. In every direction sheets of water 

 from a few yards to a mile or more in length lay around us, 

 sparsely dotted with wild duck ; and curious hills, low, flat-topped, 

 and isolated, stood up abruptly from the level surface of the marshy 

 flats. The land, rising from the sea in a succession of terraces of 

 singular regularity, bears the strongest evidences of gradual but 

 discontinuous elevation. These terraces have very abrupt edges, 

 and down these little cliff's of ten to twenty feet in height the 

 sledges shot from time to time with a velocity not a little startling 

 to the occupant, who was generally in total ignorance of their 

 proximity. Now and then we crossed slight elevations, partaking 

 rather of the character of the Kamschatkan f jells, and covered 

 with bilberries and Eiivpctnmi, and occasional patches of the 

 " reindeer-horn " moss. Such ground is most exliaustinsj to walk 

 upon, the pedestrian sinking up to the knees into the soft mossy 

 hummocks at every step. 



We had taken our guns in the hopes of securing some ornitho- 

 logical specimens, but, with the exception of the Lapland Buntings 

 {F. lapponica), which were numerous, few birds were to be seen. 

 About six or seven miles from Nikolsky we came to a little stream 

 with overhanging banks, where with a small hand-net, and also 

 with our own unaided hands, we caught some beautiful little trout 

 of a quarter to half a pound in weight. Close by was a small 

 pool, whose connection with the stream was of the faintest descrip- 

 tion ; but it must nevertheless have been sufficient to permit of 

 the passage of some large salmoii which we found there. They 

 were kelts of the Haiko and Garbusa (0. lagocephalus and O.'proteus), 

 VOL. I. 



