318 OUR AKCTIC PROVINCE. 



the parade-grounds of Zapaduie has ever been made since 1869. It 

 is easily reached, however, if it were desirable to do so. 



Polavina has also been an old settlement site, and, for the reason 

 cited at Zapadnie, no " holluschickie " have been driven from this 

 point since 1872, though it is one of the easiest worked. It was in 

 the Russian times a pet sealing-ground with them. The remains 

 of an old village have nearly all been buried in the sand near the 

 lake, and there is really no mark of its early habitation, unless it be 

 the singular effect of a human graveyard being dug out and de- 

 s2:)oiled by the attrition of seal bodies and flippers. The old ceme- 

 tery just above and to the right of the barrabkie, near the little 

 lake, was oi'iginally established, so the natives told me, far away 

 from the hauling of the "holluschickie." It was, when I saw it in 

 1876, in a melancholy state of ruin. A thousand young seals (at 

 least) moved oft" from its surface as I came up, and they had actually 

 trampled out many sandy graves, rolling the bones and skulls of 

 Aleutian ancestry in every direction. Beyond this ancient demesne 

 which the natives established long ago, as a house of refuge during 

 the winter when they were trapping foxes, looking to the west over 

 the lake, is a large expanse of low, flat swale and tundra, which is ter- 

 minated by the rocky ridge of Kamminista. Every foot of it has 

 been placed there subsequent to the original elevation of the island 

 by direct action of the sea, beyond question. It is covered with a 

 thick gTowth of the rankest sphagnum, which quakes and trembles 

 like a bog under one's feet, but over which the most beautiful 

 mosses ever and anon crop out, including that characteristic floral 

 display before referred to in speaking of the island. Most of the 

 way from the village up to the Northeast Point, as will be seen by 

 a cursor}' glance at the map, with the exception of this bluff of 

 Polavina and the terraced table setting back from its face to Pola- 

 vina Sopka, the wdiole island is slightly elevated above the level of 

 the sea, and its coast-line is lying just above and beyond the reach 

 of the surf, where great ridges of sand have been piled up by the 

 wind, capped with sheafs and tufts of rank-growing Elymus. 



Near the village, at that little bight mapped as Zoltoi, is a famous 

 rendezvous for the "holluschickie," and from this place during the 

 season the natives make regular drives, having only to step out 

 from their houses in the morning and walk a few rods to find their 

 fur-bearing qviarry. 



Passing over Zoltoi on our way down to the point, we quickly 



