212 



OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



lieved of the great Alaskan curse of mosquitoes : he also walks the 

 moors and hillsides secure in never finding a reptile of any sort 

 whatever no snakes, no lizards, no toads or frogs nothing of the 

 sort to be found on the Seal Islands. 



Fish are scarce in the vicinity of these islands. Only a few rep- 

 resentatives of those families which can secrete themselves with rare 

 cunning are safe in visiting the Pribylovs in summer. Naturally 

 enough, the finny tribes avoid the seal-churned waters for at least 

 one hundred miles around. Among a few specimens, however, which 



Aleutes catching Halibut, Akootan Pass, Bering Sea. 



I collected, three or four species new to natural science were found, 

 and have since been named by experts in the Smithsonian Institution. 

 The presence of such great numbers of amphibian mammalia 

 about the waters during five or six months of every year renders 

 all fishing abortive, and unless expeditions are made seven or eight 

 miles at least from the land, unless you desire to catch large hali- 

 but, it is a waste of time to cast your line over the gunwale" of the 

 boat. The natives capture "poltoos" or halibut, Hippoglossus vul- 

 garis, within two or three miles of the reef -point on St. Paul and 

 the south shore during July and August. After this season the 

 weather is usually so stormy and cold that fishermen venture no 

 more until the ensuing summer. * 



* The St. George natives have caught codfish just off the Tolstoi Head 

 early in June ; but it is a rare occurrence. By going out two or three miles 



