Arctic Cruise of the U.S. S. Thetis im 1889. 175 
We arrived at these islands on the evening of the 25th of June, 
after groping around in the heavy and almost constant fog and 
mist that envelop them. During our short stay at St. Paul we 
were able to see a drive of seals from a rookery and the killing, 
skinning, and packing, which followed; but what we found to be 
the most interesting was the visit to the rookeries, both from 
the inshore side and from boats along the sea front. The sys- 
tematic partition of the grounds, the formation of the harems, the 
exclusion of the young males, and the aggressive conduct of the 
older ones, all proved most interesting and novel. This, however, 
has been described so often that I will not here repeat it. 
Leaving these islands, so unlike any others in the world, we 
proceeded to the north and west to St. Mathew Island, a large 
and uninhabited island in the middle of Bering sea. The object 
in visiting this island was twofold, the first being to ascertain 
if there were any shipwrecked persons upon the island, the other 
being to verify the statement made upon the chart we possessed 
that the island was infested with polar bears. Upon our arrival 
and landing upon the island we found plenty of old tracks but 
no recent evidences of the existence of polar bears. This was 
ascertained after honest and fatiguing endeavor to find them by 
parties of officers and men from the ship, who scoured the eastern 
part of the island, both upon the hills and upon the low tundra, 
but without success. 
St. Mathew island is probably the southern limit of the solid 
ice in winter in this part of Bering sea, the ice below it to the 
southward and toward the Aleutian chain being made up of 
newer ice and detached floes of well broken ice. It is surrounded 
by the ice during seven months of the year, and generally envel- 
oped with fog during the remaining five months. Winds and 
rains sweep over it during the summer, the low land being com- 
posed of wet, grassy tundra, while the higher elevations are 
formed of scoriz and volcanic rock. 
A large quantity of drift-wood found piled up upon the steep 
shingle beaches probably came down the Yukon river from the 
interior of Alaska, there being no growth of trees upon this 
desolate land. 
After leaving St. Mathew island we stood over to the Siberian 
side of Bering sea, in order to ascertain the whereabouts of the 
whaling fleet, and, if possible, to gather some news concerning 
the fate of the whaling bark “Little Ohio,” a vessel that had 
been missing since the previous autumn. 
