220 ALASKA. 



They sleep soundly, bat fitfully, rolling their heavy arms and 

 legs about; for naps they prefer little grassy depressions on the 

 Jiill-sides and along the numerous small water-courses ; and the 

 .paths they made were broad and well-beaten all over the island. 



These bears, when full grown, are exceedingly muscular and 

 very strong. One shot by Lieutenant May nard measured eight 

 feet from tip of nose to tail, and could not have weighed less 

 -than a thousand or twelve hundred pounds ; it had a girth of 

 -24 inches around the muscles of the fore-arm, when the skin 

 was removed, just back of the carpal joint, corresponding to 

 our wrist ; it was fat, and had scars upon its head, which were 

 evidently received in fighting Avith its kind. No worms were 

 found in the intestines or stomach; the liver was speckled 

 with light grayish-green dots and patches. 



Note. — Lieutenant Maynard and myself surveyed this island, and made 

 -a careful chart of it ; Captain Baker gave us soundings, which accompany 

 the map. The only existing chart is a Eussian one, and very inaccurate. — 

 JI. W. E. 



SAIXT LAWEE]S"CE ISLAND. 



This is the largest island in Bering Sea, and lies directly 

 south from Bering's Straits about 180 miles; it is about 80 to 

 85 miles in length, with an average width of 15 to 20. The sea 

 has built on to it most extensively, in the same manner as on 

 the island of Saint Paul, but it is quite dissimilar in form and 

 climate. 



We made our first landing on this island early in the morning 

 of August 18, near Kagallegak, or opposite Poonook Islets, 

 and a baidar with a number of the natives, Mahlemute Eskimo, 

 came off to us as soon as we dropped our anchor. 



We found the island, at this landing, to be made up of coarse 

 feldspathic red granite flats and hills, with extensive lagoons 

 and lakes. The skeleton of the island seems to be of these low 

 granitic hill-ranges, and between them stretch long, low, even 

 reaches of sand-beach for miles and miles. At Kagallegak the 

 eye sweeps over extensive, level plains to the northward, upon 

 which the green Eriophorum (oujustifoUum principally grows, 

 the ground, or "tundra," being wet and boggy; while, on the 

 •sand-beach reaches, the "wild wheat" [Elymus mollis) grows 

 abundantly, short and stunted. 



