BERING SEA 187 



by another high authority 1 that there are no evidences of 

 glaciation, either general or local, on these various coasts 

 and islands. A third investigator, 2 also of high rank, 

 ascribes the fiords of the Siberian coast to glaciers, but 

 finds no evidence of glaciation on the neighboring coast 

 of Alaska about Port Clarence. My own opportunities 

 for observation were limited to a few hours each on St. 

 Paul, St. Matthew and Hall islands, a few hours sailing 

 past the Siberian coast, with a brief landing in Plover Bay, 

 a distant view of Cape York, a point southeast of Cape 

 Prince of Wales, and a few hours on the tundra near Port 

 Clarence. The scanty facts thus gathered can not be 

 expected to settle the vexed question; but, in view of the 

 wide diversity of existing opinion, it appears worth while 

 to make record of even hasty observations and first im- 

 pressions. 



Of St. Paul Island we saw the southern peninsula. The 

 land is there composed of remnants of volcanic cones 



FIG. 89. CRATER RIM ON ST. PAUL ISLAND. 



Shows projections which would not survive glaciation. Photograph by U. S. Coast Survey. 



whose softened profiles indicate long-continued weather- 

 ing. The forms are smooth, except where cut by the sea 



1 W. H. Dall. Bull. 84 U. S. Geol. Survey, p. 258, 1892. Alaska and its Re- 

 sources, pp. 461-464, 1870. 



2 A. E. Nordenskiold. The Voyage of the Vega. New York ed., pp. 569, 

 583-585, 1882. 



