216 ALASKA. 



of a steep place is made, water oozing aud trickling almost 

 everywhere underneath. The swales frequently rise high, and 

 cross the hill-summits aud ridges without any interruption in 

 their wet swampy character from valley to valley. 



Here, on the highest summits, where no moss ever grows and 

 nothing but a fine porphyritic shingle slides and rattles under 

 tread, are bear-roads leading from nest to nest, or lairs, which 

 they have scooped out on the hill-sides and where the she-bears 

 undoubtedly bring forth their young, but it is not plain where 

 these bears, which are all around us by hundreds, spend their 

 winters. I am inclined to believe that they do not stay on the 

 island ; but as soon as the floes come down from the north, driv- 

 ing off the seal and walrus, they leave the island and take to 

 this ice, keeping by the water's edge, where their prey will he 

 found, and returning as soon as the season opens. Now 

 as we see them they are all eating grass and roots, digging or 

 browsing, or else heavily sleeping on the hill-sides. Their man- 

 ner of browsing is very similar to the action of a hog engaged 

 in grazing. 



The action of ice in rounding down and grinding hills, carry- 

 ing the soil and debris off into depressions and valleys, is most 

 beautifully exhibited here. The hills at the northern foot of 

 Sugarloaf Cone are bare and literally polished by ice-sheets and 

 slides of melting snow; the rocks and soil from the summits and 

 slopes are carried down and dumped, as it were, in numberless 

 little heaps at the base. Nowhere can the work of ice be seen 

 to better advantage than here, especially so with regard to the 

 chiseling power of frost on the faces of the porphyrj- cliffs. 

 The flora here is more extensive than on the Seal Islands, 200 

 miles to the southward, but the species of grass are not near 

 so varied ; indeed, there is very little grass-land here. ^Yher- 

 ever there is soil it seems to be converted by the abundant 

 moisture into a swale or swamp, over which we traveled as on 

 a quaking water-bed ; but on the rounded hill-tops and ridge- 

 summits the smooth shingle makes good walking. The high 

 land everywhere here is paved with this fine shingle, that has 

 been created by the disintegrating power of frost, which evi- 

 dently has an annual iron grip ou the island. 



The west end of the island differs materially from the east; 

 the fantastic weathering of the rocks at Cathedral Point, Hall's 

 Island, strikes the eye of the most casual observer as the ship 

 enters the straits going south. This eastern wall of the point 



