UNDERGROUND HUT OF NATIVES 49 



those in Kamchatka and approaching the arrows of the Tunguses 

 and Tatars, scraped very smooth and painted black, so that one 

 might well conjecture that the natives possessed iron instru- 

 ments and knives. 



In spite of my fear of being attacked in the cellar I continued 

 my search but, discovering nothing more, took away with me, 

 as proof, two bundles of fish, the arrows, a wooden implement 

 for making fire, tinder, a bundle of thongs of seaweed, bark, and 

 grass and sent them by my cossack to the place where the water 

 was being taken on, with instructions to bring them to the 

 Captain Commander; at the same time I asked once more for 

 two or three men to help me further in my investigations of 

 nature; I also had those on shore warned not to feel too secure 

 but to be well on their guard. I then covered over the cellar as 

 it had been and proceeded, now all alone, with my project of 

 investigating the noteworthy features of the three kingdoms of 

 nature until my cossack should return. However, when I had 

 gone about six versts, I came to a steep rock extending so far 

 into the sea beyond the beach that it was impossible to go 

 farther. 92 j determined to climb the rock and after much diffi- 



keeping a constant watch for Macrocystis pyrifera (Turner), did not see 

 this species north of Sitka (Harriman Alaska Expedition, Vol. 5, 1904, 



p. 195). (S) 



92 This rock, later in the journal referred to as a mountain, was identi- 

 fied during my 1922 visit as the hill about 250-300 feet high which is 

 shown on the chart (Fig. 4) as a bold projection from the western shore 

 of the island in 59° 56' N. and which appears in the background of two of 

 the photographs (Figs. 7 and 8). Although I was not able to approach 

 its base nearer than a mile and a half, because of a comparatively 

 recent rock fall (Fig. 8) which made progress along the shore impossible 

 at this point, the general topographical relations and the agreement of dis- 

 tances with those given by Steller made the identification practically certain. 



This hill is without a name. It would seem eminently fitting that it 

 should bear the name of the naturalist who first set foot here on Alaskan 

 soil, and it is herewith proposed, as was previously done in regard to a 

 similar feature on Bering Island (Deutsche Geogr. Blatter, Bremen, Vol. 8, 

 1885, p. 226 and PI. 5), that this piece of classic ground in the history 

 of American discovery be called "Steller's Hill" (the name has thus 

 been inserted on our map, Fig. 4). (S) 



