THE GREAT ALEUTIAjV CHAIIN^ 161 



those tyj^ical Aleutian barraboras, with a small chapel, of course. 

 Here, in 1880, lived the oldest inhabitant of the Oonalashka parish, 

 an Aleut who had an undisputed age of eighty-three years. These 

 simple souls have that same faith in the good behavior of ]Ma- 

 kooshin which distinguished the citizens of Herculaneum and Pom- 

 peii with reference to the dangers of Vesuvius. But the most 

 amusing indignation is exj^ressed by them in speaking of the bad 

 behavior of an Oomnak crater, just across the straits from them, 

 which in 1878 broke out into earthquakes, smoke, fire, and mud- 

 showers, that so frightened the fish all about in these waters as to 

 literally cause a famine at Makooshin. The finny tribes seem to be 

 driven off by a trembling of the rocky bottom to the sea. 



It was at Makooshin that the first Russians landed under Stepan 

 Glottov in 1757. These traders in their reports declared that the 

 natives here then " were very numerous and warlike," and that they 

 had a great deal of that peculiar trouble with them which we so 

 thoroughly understand now in the light of their infamous record. 

 Certain it is that a more innocent-looking, indolent grouj) of Aleutes 

 cannot be found in all this region to-day than are these descendants 

 of the "blood-thirsty savages," which Glottov saw in council here. 

 They trap cross-foxes on the flanks of the great mountain which over- 

 shadows their settlement, and do but little else. They are not at all 

 impressed by the volcano, and cannot understand why we should 

 walk over a long portage of eight miles from Oonalashka Harbor 

 just to ascend it : because, they say truly, that the chances are ten 

 to one against our seeing anything when we shall get up there, in- 

 asmuch as fog will surely shut down over everything. In spite, 

 however, of their argument we ascended, and they were right. We 

 could not see a rod beyond our footing in any direction, and had it 

 not been for their guidance, as the fog continued, we would have 

 had a very ditScult matter in regaining the lowlands at all that 

 day.* 



When Makooshin is seen from Bering Sea, in the early autumn, 

 the snow rests upon its peculiar form so as to make a most strik- 

 ing suggestion of its being extended as a huge corpse, with a sheet 

 thrown over the upper part only of the body. The natives have 



* But on two other occasions the author has had clear and unfogged 

 glimpses of this singular mountain, which he made careful studies of ; they 

 are presented to the reader in this connection. 



