194 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



on St. Paul Island, north from the land which he had been com- 

 pelled to leave. Here he remained until autumn, and became ac- 

 quainted with the hunting of different animals. Elegant weather 

 one day setting in, he saw the peaks of Oonimak. He then re- 

 solved to put to sea, and return to receive the thanks of his people 

 there, and after three or four days of travelling he arrived at Ooni- 

 mak with "many otter tails and snouts." * 



The Pribylov Islands lie in the heart of Bering Sea, and are 

 among the most insignificant landmarks known to that ocean. 

 They are situated one hundred and ninety-two miles north of Oon- 

 alashka, two hundred miles south of St. Matthews, and about the 

 same distance westward of Cape Newenham on the mainland. 



The islands of St. George and St. Paul are from twenty-seven 

 to thirty miles apart, St. George lying southeastward of St. Paul. 

 They are far enough south to be beyond the reach of permanent 

 ice-floes, upon which polar bears would have made their way to the 

 islands, though a few of these animals were doubtless always pres- 

 ent. They were also distant enough from the inhabited Aleutian 

 districts and the coast of the mainland to have remained unknown 

 to savage men. Hence they afforded the fur-seal the happiest 

 shelter and isolation, for their position seems to be such as to 

 surround and envelop them with fog-banks that fairly shut out the 

 sun nine days in every ten during the summer and breeding-season. 



In this location ocean-currents from the great Pacific, warmer 

 than the normal temperature of this latitude, trending up from 

 southward, ebb and flow around the islands as they pass, giving rise 

 during the summer and early autumn to constant, dense, humid 

 fog and drizzling mists, which hang in heavy banks over the ground 

 and the sea-line, seldom dissolving away to indicate a pleasant day. 

 By the middle or end of October strong, cold winds, refrigerated 

 on the Siberian steppes, sweep down over the islands, carrying off 



* Veniaminov says that he does feel inclined to believe this story, as the 

 peaks of Oonimak can be seen occasionally from St. Paul. I have no hesi- 

 tation in saying that they were never observed by any mortal eye from the 

 Pribylov group. The wide expanse of water between these points, and the 

 thick, foggy air of Bering Sea, especially so at the season mentioned in this 

 story above, will always make the mountains of Oonimak invisible to the eye 

 from Saint Paul Island. A mirage is almost an impossibility. It may have 

 been much more probable if the date was a winter one. Veniaminov : Zapies- 

 kie ob Oonalashkenskaho Otdayla, etc., 1842. 



