130 G. M. DAWSON — COASTS OF BERING SEA AND VICINITY. 



been laid down in water, and date from a period much more remote 

 than that of the existing volcanoes. They closely resemble in lithologic 

 character some of the Paleozoic and Triassic rocks met with in British 

 Columbia, and in their degree of alteration are like to those already noted 

 as occurring on Attn island ; but as such characters depend chiefly on 

 the degree and nature of metamorphism to which the beds have been 

 subjected, they afford little clew to the real age of the rocks. No trace 

 of organic remains could be found in them. 



In the vicinity of the harbor these rocks have preponderantly southerly 

 dips at rather high angles, and a thickness of several thousand feet of 

 them is here displayed. At the coaling place, near the entrance to the 

 harbor on its west side, they dip south 10° east (magnetic) at an angle 

 of 30°, and similar dips are found along all this side of the harbor. 

 About a mile outside the harbor, on the east shore of Avacha bay, similar 

 rocks are seen in low cliffs, dipping south 40° west (magnetic) at an angle 

 of 60° ; but in following the shore into the harbor varied and irregular 

 dips are met with. Further out, beyond a deep indentation in Avacha 

 haj, the stratification in some of the cliffs appears to be nearly hori- 

 zontal. 



Mr Collie, in the Zoology of Captain Beech ey's Voyage, notes the occur- 

 rence of serpentine as a frequent constituent of the older rocks about 

 Avacha bay. These rocks, as represented in the immediate vicinity of 

 Petrapavlovsk, he refers to in a general manner as clay-slates.* 



On the east side of the harbor of Petrapavlovsk, behind the village, a 

 distinct, though faintly impressed line running along the hill, seems to 

 indicate the existence of an old sea-margin at a height of about 250 feet 

 above the present, but apart from this no evidences of terracing were 

 observed at this place. Neither were any erratics or bowlder-clay met 

 with ; nor were any striated rock-surfaces or other evidences of glaciation 

 anywhere seen. So far as they go, such observations are, of course, en- 

 tirely negative in character; but it may be affirmed that no traces of the 

 Glacial period, such as those so commonly found on the coast of British 

 Columbia and that of southeastern Alaska, are here apparent. 



Pribilof Islands. 



Mr. J. Stanley-Brown, of the United States Geological Survey, during 

 his residence upon these islands in 1891, made a thorough examination 

 and survey of them. The main results of his work are given in brief 

 in a paper lately read before the Geological Society of America.f Mr 



*Zo6Iog5' of Captain Beechey's Voyage, London, 1839, p. 167. 

 t Bull. Geol. Soe. Am., vol. iii, p. 496. 



