THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



113 



The iii^permost even plateau is covered by a luxuriant close grass-carpet, over wliich a few stalks of the two 

 above-named unibellates raise themselves here and there. 



Vegetation on this little islet combines an unusual poverty of various species with a high degree of luxuriance. 



Of higher order of animals we saw only four species of birds, namely, Fraterctila cirrhata, Uria gri/Uc, one species 

 of riialacrocorax (Swedish skafvar), and one kind of the gull [Lartis) species, which live here by the millions. They 

 occupied the upper plateau, where they had everywhere dug out short, deep, and uiuisually broad passages, with two 

 openings, in which they slept. From there they flew, on our arrival, iu large flocks to and from the sea. Their 

 numbers were almost comparable with the auks on the Arctic bird clifls. The other ducks nestled along the shore 

 clifls. 



The number of the non-vertebrate land-animals foots up perhaps to thirty species. The most numerous are 

 Machelis, Vitrina, Lithobias, Talitrus, a few two- winged beetles (bugs). They all lived on the inner belt of the 

 shore, where the ground is uiuisually damp. 



Much milder climate than that of the Pribylov group. — Bering island could, without difficulty, 

 feed large herds of cattle, perhaps as numerous as the herds of sea-cows which formerly grazed along its shores. 

 The sea-cow had, as it were, chosen its grazing place with discrimination, because the sea about here, according to 

 Dr. Kjelman, is one of the richest kelp-places in the world. The bottom of the sea is covered, in favorable places, 

 with kelp forests, from (JO to 100 feet high, which are so dense that the scraper with difliculty penetrates down iu 

 them, a circumstance which made the dredging exceedingly difficult. Certain kind of kelp is used by the inhabitants 

 for food. 



Salmon on the island. — That spit, where the sea-bears have their rookeries, is about 20 kilometers distant 

 from the village. We-went there each on his sleigh drawn by about ten dogs. During this trip, at a resting-place 

 half-way between the village and the rookeries, we had occasion to take part in a very peculiar fishing. Our halting- 

 place was on an even grass meadow, cut through by innumerable brooks. Those were full of various kinds of fishes, 

 among the.m a kind of siik (gwiniad, Swedish), a small trout (lorell), a medium-sized salmon, with almost white meat, 

 but with pitrple-red skin, and another of about the same length, but very broad and with a hump on the back. 

 These were easily taken. They were taken by hand, harpooned with an ordinary blunt stick or any piece of wood, 

 cut with knives, or taken with a bug-scoop. Other kinds of salmon, with very highly colored red flesh, are 

 found in the larger streams on the island. We received here, for a mere nothing, a welcome change from the 

 .preserved food with which we had long ago become thoroughly disgusted. 



Courtesy op the Alaska Commercial Company. — Beside that, the expedition received, as a gift from the 

 Alaska Company, fat and splendid beeves, milk, and other refreshments, and I cannot sufiiciently praise the 

 good-will we experienced, as well from the Eussiau official, Mr. Greboritsky, an energetic and skillful student of 

 natural history, as from the employes of the Alaska Company, and all other persons living on the island with whom 

 we came in contact. [ Translation closes.] 



Table submitted by the author, showing the "catch" on the Commander islands. — In order 

 to show the relative importance of the seal business on these Russian islands as compared with that of our own, I 

 ai^pend the following exliibit of what has been done there since 1862. Professor Nordenskiold does not seem to 

 have gathered the information; he has, however, in his forthcoming Vegas-furden, embodied mj' figures: 



Fur-seal shins taken for shipment from the Commander islands. 



Bering's disaster. — The miserable ending to Bering's voyage of discovery in 174l-'42 had one redeeming 

 clause — the shipwreck of the commander's vessel gave Steller his opportunity of making the fur-seal rookeries 

 known to man for the first time, in either history or legend. As the prime factor of this entertaining addition to 

 our knowledge, I think a short recital of the misfortunes of the Russian expedition interestiilgin the relation which 

 it bears to tUe subject of my discussion. 



HoMEWAED voyage AND SHIPWRECK. — In 1741, June 4, Bering and Tschericov set sail from*Petropavlovsky, 



in two small vessels, the "St. Peter" and the "St. Paul"; they proceeded as low as the 50° latitude. then decided to 



steer eastward for the reported American continent. On the 20th the rude shi])s were separated by a storm, and the 



two commanders never met in life again. Sunday, 18th July, Bering, while waiting for the other vessel, drifted on 



our northwest coast. He i^assed some six weeks in the new waters of his discovery, when by the 3d of September 

 8 



