118 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



rocky islets and reefs awash. A beautiful geological demonstration 

 of the effect which surf-beating waves of the ocean have made 

 upon these mountains ages ago, is shown by the plainly evident lines 

 traced on their flanks fully one thousand feet above the present 

 level of the tide ; and again, another terrace is sculptured in par- 

 allel relief just above it, some five hundred feet higher a silent, 

 but conclusive showing of the truth that the entire Aleutian chain 

 has been lifted out, at two successive periods, and up from the sea. 



This range of the peninsula is in itself quite peculiar from the 

 others which we have hitherto noticed thus far. It differs from 

 their physiognomy in one respect the mountains and ridges them- 

 selves are interrupted in one continuity down the line of their 

 extension by abrupt depressions. These passes, as they appear to 

 be, are not so in fact, but are either low or elevated marshy plains, 

 which extend clear across the peninsula ; they create an impression 

 in the mind of the observer that at a not very remote period, geo- 

 logically speaking, the peaks of this peninsula range were then 

 islands, and the marshy portages, now elevated, were the bottoms 

 of the straits then between them. The natives are continually 

 going to and fro between the waters of Bering Sea and the 

 Pacific Ocean over these areas of swampy level, engaged in hunt- 

 ing reindeer, bear, or in friendly intercourse with the settlements. 

 The most signal mountain groups on the peninsula are those of 

 Morshovie, of Belcovsky, and the Pavlosk volcanic cluster all joined 

 by low, wet isthmian swales. The Shoomagin volcano of Venia- 

 minov is also a noteworthy peak. The peninsula is almost bisected 

 between Moller and Zakharov Bays, where the natives cross from 

 water to water in a half-day's portage, and again at Pavlov Harbor. 

 All these isolated or nearly detached mountain sections have a 

 striking resemblance in every respect to the first large island, 

 Oonimak, that is separated from the mainland by the narrow and 

 unnavigable Krenitzin Straits. 



The Bering Sea coast line of the great Alaskan Peninsula pre- 

 sents a most radical contrast to that of the Pacific the unbroken, 

 rocky abruptness and roughness there is here suddenly transformed 

 right at the very turn in the Straits of Krenitzin, to low, sandy 

 reaches and slightly elevated moorland tundra, which cover a wide 

 interval between the mountains and the waters of Bristol Bay and 

 Bering Sea. The huge masses of lava, of breccia and conglomer- 

 ate tufa, that everywhere rear their black-ebony shoulders above 



