BERING ISLAKD. 125 



crystalline or other evidently foreign rocks were found upon the beaches. 

 The soil in the valleys and on the lower slopes of the hills is a reddish, 

 fine grained material, doubtless formed by the disintegration of the rocks 

 above described. 



No satisfactory general views of the coastline of the northern and 

 lower part of Bering island Avere obtained on account of foggy weather. 

 A landing was, however, made on the north shore at cape Yushin, where 

 the " north rookery " is situated. The shore is here rocky, and wide, 

 low reefs run out from it, entirely composed of volcanic rocks. One of 

 these is a dark brown melaphyre, containing plagioclase, augite and 

 olivine crystals, wdth some magnetite, embedded in a groundmass of the 

 same constituents. There is also a fragmental rock of somewhat peculiar 

 appearance, which seems not to be a true agglomerate, but an eruptive 

 material charged with fragments of dissimilar rocks. The basis is some- 

 what amygdaloidal, and may very probably have the same composition 

 as the rock first noted. Well formed pyroxene crystals are abundant in 

 some parts of the mass. The rocks are much shattered, and it was not 

 easy to determine the precise relations of the two varieties here associated. 

 No trace of sedimentary rocks like those of Stareya was seen. 



At Nikolski, on the west side of the island, the point south of the little 

 ba}^ is composed of hard, fine grained, gray, augite-porphyrite, composed 

 of plagioclase, augite, and a light brown biotite, considerably altered to 

 chlorite, apatite and magnetite. It is homogeneous in texture and ap- 

 parently massive. Here and there this rock is curiously spotted with 

 fiesh -colored chalcedony, which occurs in it in small kernels not dis- 

 tinctly amygdaloidal. The relation which this rock may bear to the 

 stratified sediments of other parts of the island remains uncertain, as no 

 sedimentary rocks were seen here. Basaltic rocks are, however, probabty 

 abundant in the northern part of the island, for fragments of such rocks 

 are common on the beaches. 



The shores about Nikolski in some places show a well marked low 

 terrace, at twenty to thirty feet above high-water mark, which evidently 

 indicates an elevation of about that amount, as there is a second still 

 lower fiat just above the actual beacli, which may be accounted for by 

 the accumulation of storm-wash under the present conditions or very 

 nearly so. This lower fiat is no doubt that in w^hich the Rhytina bones 

 were found to be most abundant by Nordenskjold. With these excep- 

 tions no terracing was observed in Bering island. According to Mr N. 

 Grebnitsky, the governor of the Commander islands, some fossil shells 

 and plants have been found in the rocks of Bering island, which, on 

 transmission by him to Saint Petersburg, were referred to the Miocene 

 Tertiary. Lignite is also found on the island, but in inconsiderable 



XVII— BuLT,. Geol. Soc. Am., Voi-. 5, 189:?. 



