J 98 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



A glance at the grouping of these islands is important to our purpose, ist. 

 At the northwest of the semi-circular girdle are Behrings Island and Copper Is- 

 land, where large outcroppings of copper indicate an abundant mine of the metal, 

 and possibly point to a line of copper vein from the shores of Lake Superior over 

 the region of the Coppermine Country in Alaska to this deposit. We may remark 

 in passing, that it is surprising that with this free surface deposit of copper at this 

 locality, no copper implements have been discovered among the relics of the 

 old Aleuts. 



2nd. Say SE. are the Aleutian Islands proper, viz : Attak, Semitski, and 

 Shemiya, W. NW. to E. SE. 



3d. Then, NE. some six islands, the Andreanoffski group, or Ostrova, 

 meaning islands, and 



4th. The Lyssie Ostrova, or Fox Island, stretching SE. and N. by E. 

 almost to the Alaska promontory, and the last discovered at the epoch now allud- 

 ed to. 



This last important group contains Umnak, Ounal-askka, or Aghunalaskka, 

 the principal depot of the Alaska Commercial Company, with St. Paul and St. 

 George further to the north, and also the barren deserted isle, one of the " Four 

 Craters" or Kagamil. In a cave of this island, a bold, bluff, mid-ocean, storm- 

 lashed in its arctic clime, but yet still seething and steaming with solfataras, and 

 volcanic heat, is the Mausoleum of our Aleut Chief and all his family. Here we 

 meet him and his progeny on a desolate fragment of the ruptured territory which 

 once united the two great continents — the monumental stone of the ruin not 

 only of the land but the division of unnumbered peoples. Imagination may 

 picture, but cannot surpass the grandeur of the truth. Another division of the 

 Aleutians is : 



I. The Kaniagmuts, and II. The Aleuts. III. The " Vaygeli," or 

 Spectral Outlaws. These are supposed to be the original inhabitants who dis- 

 dained any outside authority, refused to be converted to Christianity, and con. 

 sequently live, if such really exist, as independent natives or banditti in the in- 

 terior inaccessable mountains. 



The Vaygeli may possibly be only the predatory animals which come at night 

 and carry off the islanders' provisions. But the mythical or legendary belief of 

 the natives points distinctly to ancestral sagas which have been orally handed 

 down to them from generation to generation. We may infer either an extinct 

 prehistoric race with which the present family has no hneal descents, or we may 

 refer the legend to the earliest progenitors of present tribal groups. 



As regards our present mummies they are undoubtedly too recent, whether 

 we allow them 120 years, or about 340, according to Captain C. L. Luneuski, to 

 consider them in the light oi prehistoric remains, or concede to them Mr. Dall's 

 distinction of " Remains of Later Prehistoric Man " Capt. Lunieuski has been 

 a resident of the Aleut Isles for many years, connected with the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company. He antedates our mummies many years to the Russian 

 discovery and conquest of the islands. His intelligent studies predicated in par t 



