THE VAEIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 175 



great was their surprise on landing to find the island 

 teeming with animal life, yet undisturbed by human 

 habitation. The Commander Islands, as the group is 

 now called, consist of two large islands and a few rocky 

 islets. The most easterly of the former is Copper Island 

 (Mednie), about thirty-five miles long and three miles 

 wide, covered with high, steep, and jagged mountains, 

 which lie athwart the main trend of the island, S. E. 

 to N. W., and terminate precipitously, often perpen- 

 dicularly, with a narrow strand at the base scarcely 

 fifty feet wide. On a somewhat larger scale, the same 

 description applies to Bering Island, which, according 

 to Steller, is 23^ geographical miles long and nearly 3:^ 

 wide. It is situated about 30 geographical miles from 

 Kamchatka, between latitude 54° 40' and 55° 25' north, 

 and longitude 165° 40' and 166° 40' east of Greenwich. 

 Only on the west coast, within the shelter of the Sea 

 Lion Island (Arii Kamen) and a lesser islet, is there a 

 fairly good harbor, where the Eussians later founded 

 the only colony of the island, consisting of a few Aleuts 

 who cultivate some vegetables, but maintain themselves 

 principally by hunting and fishing. For this purpose 

 they have built, here and there on the east coast, some 

 earth-huts which are used only temporarily. The very 

 high mountains, having a trend from N. W. to S. E., almost 

 everywhere extend clear to the sea, and only here and 

 there along the mouths of the brooks do semicircular 

 coves recede from 700 to 1300 yards into the interior. 

 In Bering's day these coves or rookeries contained a 

 fauna entirely unmolested by human greed and love of 

 chase, developed according to nature's own laws, for 



