THE GREAT ALEUTIAN CHAIN. 163 



cate fringe of sea-foam along the border of a long-curved beach 

 in front. Two schooners and a steamer lie motionless upon the 

 glassy bay, like so many microscopic water insects. 



Turning right about and looking south, our eyes fall upon a 

 radically different landscape a bewildering, labyrinthian maze of 

 Oonalashkan mountain peaks and ranges, rising in defiance to all 

 law and order of position, with that lovely island-studded water 

 of the head to Captain's Harbor in the foreground. Ridge after 

 ridge, summit after summit, fades out one behind the other into 

 the oblivion of distance, where the suggestion of a continuance to 

 this same wild interior is vividly made, in spite of wreaths of fog 

 and lines of snowy sheen, relieved so brightly by that greenish-blue 

 of the mosses and sphagnum in which they are set. A few pretty 

 snow-buntings flutter over the rocks to the leeward of our position ; 

 their white, restless forms are the only evidence or indication of 

 animal life in our rugged vista of an Oonalashkan interior. Yet, 

 could we see better, we might notice a lurking red fox, and flush a 

 bevy or two of summer-dressed ptarmigan, feeding as they do on 

 the crowberries, the sphagnum, willow-buds and insect-life. 



While gazing into the endless succession of valleys, and scan- 

 ning the varied peaks, a puff of moist wind suddenly strikes our 

 cheeks we turn to its direction and behold it bearing in and up 

 from Bering Sea a thick and darkening bank of fog which rapidly 

 envelopes and conceals everything that it meets. It ends our sight- 

 seeing, and peremptorily orders a return to the village below from 

 which we came. 



When we look at the Aleutes we are impressed at once with their 

 remarkable non-resemblance to the Sitkans. They constantly re- 

 mind us of Japanese faces and forms in another costume. The 

 average Aleut is not a large man ; he is below our medium stand- 

 ard being about five feet six inches in stature, though, of course, 

 there are a few exceptions to this rule, when examples will be found 

 six feet tall, and many that are mere dwarfs. The women are in 

 turn proportionately smaller. The hair is coarse, straight, and 

 black ; the beard scanty ; cheek-bones are broad, high, and very 

 prominent ; the nose very insignificant and almost flattened out at 

 the bridge the nostrils thick and fleshy ; the eyes very wide- set 

 very small, too, with a jet-black pupil and iris ; the eyebrows very 

 faintly marked ; the lips are thick ; the mouth large ; the lower jaw 

 is very square and prognathous ; the ears are small, set close to 



