124 G. M. DAWSOX — COASTS OF BERING SEA AND VICINITY. 



Bering Island. — Bering island is about 50 miles in extreme length, with 

 a width of nearly 20 miles at its northern and wider end. From this 

 it narrows gradually, but irregularly, to cape Maniti, its southeastern ex- 

 tremity. The northern half of the island is low, with a rolling or nearly 

 flat surface, much of which is described as consisting of " tundra " land. 

 It includes one large lake, which discharges on the north shore. The 

 southern half is higher, and appears, as seen from the sea, to consist of a 

 mass of rounded hills, varying in height from several hundred to perhaps 

 1,000 feet. There are no harbors about the island, but a fair anchorage, 

 with off-shore winds, may be found in a bay at Nikolski, on the west 

 coast of the island, about ten miles from its northern end. The only 

 permanent settlement, with the headquarters of the Russian government 

 of the islands, is situated at this place. 



The shores of the higher southern portion of the island are generally 

 bordered by cliffs or steep scarped banks, with narrow and V-shaped 

 valleys breaking through them to the sea. 



On the east side of cape Maniti, and for some miles northward, regu- 

 larly stratified rocks in rather thin beds of pale brownish colors were 

 observed, dipping regularly northward at an angle of about 15°. Farther 

 to the northwestward, along the same eastern coast, at cape Tolstoi (thir- 

 teen miles from cape Maniti) paler fawn-colored or cream-colored beds 

 were seen, dipping away from the shore at low angles. They are crum- 

 bling and incoherent in character, and produce long slopes of debris in 

 some places between the bluffs and the sea. Similar rocks apparently 

 continue from cape Tolstoi to Stareya bay, at a further distance of nine- 

 teen miles, but the cliffs become lower and the scarped banks are less 

 steep. 



A landing was effected at Stareya bay, when it was found that the 

 scarped slopes, which often resemble sand from a distance and are so 

 described in sailing directions, are in reality composed of angular and 

 rubbly fragments of whitish, yellowish and gray argillites or shales, with 

 crumbling sandstones and argillaceous, fine grained gray limestones. 

 All these rocks are well bedded, and on some surfaces small carbona- 

 ceous plant fragments were observed, though none of these were deter- 

 minable. The material of the beach is composed almost entirely of the 

 debris of similar rocks, and it is probable that the whole northeastern 

 coast of the island, at least this far, consists of moderately indurated 

 sediments of Tertiary age, regularly bedded and present in considerable 

 or great thickness. The browner beds of the vicinity of cape Maniti 

 may, however, be tuff'aceous volcanic material. While it is not improb- 

 able that basaltic or other volcanic rocks may also occur, as some such 

 were found upon the shore, they were not actually seen in place. No 



