184 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



adventures, however, were by no means over. The 

 distance from Yakatat to Kaiak is about one hundred 

 and eighty land miles, which we accomplished in five 

 days, keeping within a mile or two of the land, 

 without mishap or adventure. While oif the coast 

 eighty miles to the west of St. Elias, near Cape Suck- 

 ling, I discovered an exceedingly large glacier, ap- 

 parently about thirty miles in breadth, which by 

 right of discovery I named Behring's Great Glacier. 

 The early navigators mistook the true nature of these 

 stupendous fields of ice, La Perouse describing them 

 as " snow lying upon a barren soil, unembellished by 

 a single tree," and "a plain totally destitute of 

 verdure." 



On the voyage we fired a large number of shots at 

 seals and sea-otters, and on August 14th we reached 

 Kaiak, a small island separated from the mainland by 

 a narrow channel, which these Swedes had chosen 

 for their remote and solitary home. To my surprise 

 I found a woman here, Nils Andersen's wife, and 

 learnt that on the mainland two other Scandinavians 

 had lately built a log hut and intended to pass the 

 winter hunting. 



I spent a fortnight with these self-appointed exiles 

 in their lonely home, and learnt a good many facts 

 from them relative to their life and the habits of the 

 sea- otter, in the pursuit of which they gain their 

 livelihood. This remarkable animal, so far as I am 

 aware, carries the most valuable coat of any other 

 living thing, except an occasional black fox whose 



