158 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



to the westward in this great archipelago, which is enveloped dur* 

 ing the major portion of each year in fogs, and swept over by fre- 

 quent gales. Such a combination of the elements, with mists and 

 hidden sea-currents, make it a region dreaded by mariners ; yet 

 there is enough sunshine now and then to make the life of our lands- 

 men very comfortable, even though they cannot engage in any other 

 profitable calling than that of sea-otter trading with the natives. 



Summers are mild, foggy, and humid. The average temperature 

 is about 50 Fahrenheit. Winters are also mild, foggy, and humid, 

 with a slightly colder average of 30. The thermometer nowhere 

 in the Aleutian chain ever went much below zero at sea-level. 

 There is no record even of a consecutive three or four weeks in 

 winter lower than 3 or 5 above zero. The mercury seldom ever 

 falls as low as 10. There is no nice distinction of the four seasons 

 here. We can notice only two. Winter begins in October and 

 ends by May 1st to 5th, when summer suddenly asserts herself for 

 the rest of the year not thus appropriated. 



Flurries of snow sometimes fall in August and often in Septem- 

 ber. It never stays long on the ground or even on the hilltops 

 then, and generally melts as fast as it comes, away into December ; 

 but on the highest peaks it is seen all the year round. From 

 January to May 1st or 5th, as a rule, snow covers everything in a 

 spotless shroud from two to five feet deep. The high, blustering 

 wintry gales make this snow intensely disagreeable to us, driving 

 into and through air-tight crevices, and literally making the inmates 

 of the village huts prisoners for weeks at a time. The dogs and 

 sleds so common and characteristic elsewhere in the vast expanse 

 of Alaska are never seen here. They would be a mere nuisance to 

 these people, since the rugged inequalities of the Aleutian country 

 simply prohibit their use. 



This is, however, the chosen land for lingering fogs. The foggy 

 cloudiness of the Aleutian Islands is most remarkable. There are 

 not a dozen fogless days in the whole year at Oonalashka, though 

 the sun may be seen half the time. Fifty sunshiny days in the 

 year is a handsome average. Thunder is never heard, or seldom 

 ever, while lightning is never seen, although the dark swelling 

 clouds seem to constantly suggest it ; also the northern lights 

 these auroral displays are almost unknown, and when seen are very, 

 very faint. 



But the wind ah, the winds that riot over this range of rocky 



