116 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



brooks, in which were salmon parr of fine quality. The little lakes nndoubtedly receive them ; hence, they were land- 

 locked salmon. A luxuriant growth of thick moss and grass, interspersed, existed almost everywhere on the lowest 

 ground, and occasionally strange dome-like piles of peat were lifted four or five feet above the marshy swale, and 

 ai)])eared so remarkably like abandoned barrabaras that we repeatedly turned from our course personally to satisfy 

 ourselves to the contrary. 



Changing vegetation. — As these low lands ascend to the tops of the hills, the vegetation changes rapidly to a 

 simple coat of cryptogamic gray and light russet, with a slippery slide for the foot wherever a steep flight or climbing 

 was made; water oozes and trickles everywhere under foot, since an exhalation of frost is in progress all the time. 

 Sometimes the swales rise and cross the hill-summits to the valleys again, without any interruption in their wet, 

 swampy character. 



Lairs of the polar bear. — Here, on the highest points, where no moss ever grows, and nothing but a 

 fine porphyritic shingle slides and rattles beneath our tread, are brar-roads leading from nest to nest, or lairs, which 

 they have scooped out of frost-splintered rocks on the hill-sides, and where the she-bears undoubtedly bring forth 

 their young; but it is not plain, because we saw them only sleeping, at this season of the year, on the lower ground, 

 seemingly to delight in stretching themselves and rolling over the rankest vegetation. 



Glacial exhibits. — The action of ice in rounding down and grinding hills, chipping bluffs, and chiseling 

 everywhere, carrying the soil and debris into depressions and valleys, is most beautifully exhibited on St. Matthew. 

 The hills at the foot of Sugar Loaf cone are bare and literally polished by ice-sheets and slides of melting snow; 

 the rocks and soil .from the summits and slopes are carried down and "dumped", as it were, in numberless little 

 heaps at the base, so that the foot of the hill, and out on the plain around, strongly put us in mind of those refuse 

 piles which are dropped over the commons or dumping-grounds of a city. Nowhere can the work of ice be seen to 

 ♦ better advantage than here, aided and abetted as it undoubtedly is by the power of wind, especially with regard to 

 the chiseling action of frost on the faces of the ringing metallic porphyry cliffs. 



Extensive flora. — The flora here is as extensive as on the seal-islands, 200 miles to the southward, but the 

 species of grammw are not near so varied; indeed, there is very little grass around about. \^Tierever there is soil it 

 seems to be converted by the abundant moisture into a swale or swamp, over which we traveled as on a quaking 

 water-bed; but on the rounded hill-tops and ridge summits the wiqd-rubbed and frost-splintered shingle makes good 

 walking; both of these climatic agencies evidently have an annual iron grip on the island. 



Fantastic cleavage of the rocks. — The west end of St. Matthew differs materially from the east : the 

 fantastic weathering of the rocks at Cathedral point, Hall island, will strike the eye of a most casual observer as the 

 ship enters the straits going south. This eastern wall of that point looms up from the water like a row of immense 

 cedar-tree trunks; the scaling ofi' of the basaltic porphyry and growth of yellowish-green and red mossy lichens 

 made the effect most real, while a vast bank of fog lying just overhead seemed to shut out from our vision tlie 

 foliage and branches that should be above. This north cape of Hall island changes when approached, with every 

 mile's distance, to a new and altogether characteristic profile. 



Our visit at the west end of the island of St. Matthew was, geologically speaking, the most interesting 

 experience I have ever had in Alaska. The geologist who may desire to study the greatest variety of igneous 

 forms in situ, within a short and easy radius, can vlo no better than make his survey here ; the rocks are not only 

 varied by mineral colors, together with a fantastic arrangement of basalt and porphyry, but are rich and elegant 

 in their tinting by the profuse growth of lichens, brown, yellow, green, and bronze. 



Hundreds of polar bears. — An old Russian record prepared us, in landing, to find bears here; but it did 

 not cause us to be equal to the sight we saw, for we met bears— yea hundreds of them. I was going to say that 

 I saw hears here as I had seen seals to the south, but that, of course, will not do, unless as a mere figure of speech. 

 During the nine days that we were surveying this island, we never were one moment, while on land, out of sight 

 of a bear or bears; their white forms in the distance always answered to our search, though they ran from our 

 immediate ])reseiice with the greatest celerity, traveling in a swift, shambling gallop, or trotting off' like elejjhants. 

 Whether due to the fact that they were gorged with food, or that the warmer weather of summer subdued their 

 temper, we never could coax one of these animals to show fight. Its first impulse and its last one, while within 

 our influence, was flight— males, females, and cubs, all, when surprised by us, rushing with one accord right, 

 left, and in every direction, over the hills and away. 



After shooting half a dozen, we destroyed no more, for we speedily found that we had made their acquaintance 

 at the height of their shedding season ; and, their snowy and highly prized winter-dress was a very different article 

 from the dingj-, satt'ron-colored, grayish fur that was flying like downy feathers in the wind, whenever rubbed or 

 pulled by our hands. They never roared, or uttered any sound whatever, even when shot or wounded. 



Excellence of the flesh.— Let me testify at this moment to the excellent quality of polar-bear steak; we 

 gave it a fair trial, and it conquered all our prejudices — mine in especial, because I had been victimized with 

 black-bear meat many years before, in British Columbia. 



Immense size of the polar bear. — These bears impressed me greatly by their enormous size. One, shot 

 by Lieutenant Maynard, measured exactly 8 feet from the tip of its nose to its excessively short tail, and could 

 not have weighed less than 1,000 or 1,200 pounds ; it had a girth of 24 inches around the muscles of the forearm 



