268 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



AN ALEUT. 



CILVPTER XXV. 



BERING SEA— THE RUSSIAN FUR COMPANY— THE ALEUTS. 



Bering Sea. —Un:ilaska.—TIie Pribilow Islmds.— St. Matthew.— St. Laurence.— Bering's Straits.— The 

 Rus>i;iii Fur Compan}'. — The Aleuts. — Their Ctiaracter. — 'Ihrir Skill and Intrepiditv in hunting the 

 Sea-otter. — The Sea-bear. — Whale-chasing. — Wahus-slaugliter. — The Sea-lion. 



T^EIIIXG SEA is extremel}'^ interesting in a geographical point of view, as 

 -*^ tlie temperature of its coasts and islands exhibits so striking a contrast 

 with that part of tlie Arctic Ocean which extends between Greenland, Iceland, 

 Norway, and Spitzbergen, and affords us the most convincing proof of the 

 benefits we owe to the Gulf Stream, and to the mild south-westerlv winds 

 which sweep across the Atlantic. While through the sea between Iceland 

 and Scotland, a part of the warmth generated ni the tropical zone penetrates 

 by means of marine and aerial currents as fiir as Spitzbergen and the we^steru 

 coast of Nova Zembla, the Sea of Bering is completely deprived of this advan- 

 tage. Tlie long chain of mountainous islands which bounds it on the south 

 serves as a barrier against the mild influence of the Pacific, and instead of 

 warm streams mixing with i's waters, many considerable rivers and deep bays 

 yearly discharge into it enormous masses of ice. Thus as soon as the naviga- 

 tor enters IJcring Sea he perceives at once a considerable fall in the tempera- 

 ture, and finds himself suddenly transferred from a temperate oceanic region 

 to one of a decidedly Arctic character. In spite, therefore, of their compara- 

 tively southerly position (for the Straits of Bering do not even reach the Arc- 

 tic Circle, and the Andrianow Islands are ten degrees farther to the south than 



