182 OUR AECTIC PKOVINCE. 



fisL found on the Alaskan coasts. Among the sea-^Yeecl that floats 

 in immense rafts everywhere throvighout the Aleutian passes, the 

 " yellow-fish," or " Atkha mackerel," * is very abundant ; it is also 

 plentiful off the Shoomagin Islands. It is a good substitute for 

 the real mackerel, f resembling it in taste after salting, as well as in 

 size and movements. 



During early days of Russian order and control, the people of 

 Atkha lived altogether on the north side of the island, and it was 

 then the grand central depot of the old Russian American Com- 

 pany. A chief factor was in charge, who had exclusive jurisdiction 

 over all that country embraced in the Kurile archipelago, and the 

 Commander group of Kamchatka, and the Aleutian chain as far 

 east as Oomnak. It was a very important place then, and this ter- 

 ritory of its jurisdiction was styled the "Atkhan Division." But 

 within the last ten or twelve years, fish and drift-wood became very 

 scarce on the Bering Sea coast, so the inhabitants made a sweeping- 

 removal of everything from the ancient site on Korovinsky Bay to 

 that of Nazan, where the little hamlet now stands, overtopped by 

 lofty peaks and hills on every side, except where it looks out over 

 the straits to the bold headlands of Seguam. So thorough were 

 they in this " nova-sailnah," that they even disinterred the remains 

 of their first priest and re-buried them in front of their new chapel 

 — a delightful exhibition of fond memory and resi:»ect where we 

 might, perhaps, have least thought to have found them manifested. 



The curious Island of Amlia shuts out the heavy swell of the 

 Pacific Ocean from Nazan Harbor, and gives that little bay great 

 peace and protection. This island is thirty miles in length, and 

 nowhere has it a breadth of over four miles ; most of its entire 

 extent is only some two miles from ocean to ocean. It consists of 

 a string of sharp, conical peaks, which once were active volcanoes, 

 but now cold and silent as the tomb. So abruptly do they rise 

 from the oceans which they divide, that there is but one small spot 

 on the south side where a vessel can lie at anchor and effect a 

 landing. 



Atkha is a large island, and it has very slight resemblance to 

 that of Oonalashka in shape ; its indented fiords are, however, less 

 deep and not near so commodious and accessible. The snowy, 

 smoking crater of Korovinsky Sopka stands like a grim sentinel 



* Pleurogrammus monopterygius. f Scomber scombrus. 



