146 OUR ARCTIC PROVITTCE. 



extended archipelago whieli stretches as an outreaching arm for 

 Asia from America ; it presents to our delighted gaze a sweep of 

 richly-colored, rolling uplands, which either slope down gently to 

 the coast at intervals, or else terminate in chocolate-brown and 

 reddish cliifs abruptly stopped to face the sea breaking at their 

 feet. Very high ridges, with summits entirely bare of vegetation, 

 traverse the centre of the island from east to west, while the tower- 

 ing snowy cone of Shishaldin and the lower, yet lofty, head of Po- 

 gromuia — two volcanoes — rear themselves over all in turn. 



There are a multitude of huge and cloud-compelling mountains 

 in Alaska, but it is wholly safe to say that Shishaldin is the most 

 beautiful peak of vast altitude known upon the North American 

 continent ; it rears its perfectly symmetrical apex over eight thou- 

 sand feet in sheer height above those breakers which thunder and 

 incessantly roll against its flanks, as these precipitous slojjes fall 

 into the great Pacific Ocean on the south, and Bering Sea to the 

 north. A steamy jet of vapor curls up lazily from its extreme 

 summit, but it has not been eruptive or noisy at any time within 

 the memory of the Kussians. No foothills, that crowd uj) against 

 and dwarf the presence of most high mountains, embarrass your 

 view of Shishaldin ; from every point of the compass it presents 

 the same perfect cone-shape ; rising directly from the water and 

 lowlands of Oonimak, it holds and continues long to charm your 

 senses with its rare magnificence ; the distance of our vessel, ten 

 or twelve miles away, serves to soften down its lines of numerous 

 seared and blackened paths of prehistoric lava overflow, so that 

 they now softly blend their purplish tones into those of the rich- 

 hned mantle of golden-green mosses and sphagnum which cover 

 the rolling lower lands. 



As we draw into Oonimak Pass — it is the gateway for all sail- 

 ing vessels bound to Bering Sea from American ports, we, in closing 

 up with the land, almost lose sight of Shishaldin, and come into 

 the shadow of the rougher and less attractive volcano of Pogromnia. 

 It shows ample evidence of its origin by the streams of blackened 

 frost-riven basalt and breccia which are ribbed upon its rugged 

 sides ; great masses of eruptive rock and pumice lie here and there 

 scattered all over the broad-stubbed head of the mountain ; tons 

 and tons of this material have rolled from thence in lavish profu- 

 sion and disorder, clear down for miles to the very waters of the 

 sea and straits, strewing that entire route with huge debris. Seams 



