TOPOGRAPHY OF BERING ISLAND. 51 



former coast, the mountains sloping more gently toward the east. The valleys, as a 

 rule, are shorter, narrower, and V-shaped oa'the west side, longer and more open on 

 the other. The passes are usually high, 600 to l,00l) feet, but at one place, viz, 

 between Gladkovskaya on the west coast and Polaviyio on the east, the two valleys 

 are continuous, with a > very low watershed, thus dividing the mountains into two 

 separate masses. In these the peaks, ridges, and intervening valleys are distributed 

 without any apparent regular system. In the northern mountain mass, however, it. 

 is easy to recognize a dominating central stock between Podutiosnaya and Buyan, 

 from which several of the largest streams of the island radiate west, north, and east, 

 as, for instance, Podutiosnaya, Fedoslda, Kamenipaya, the Staraya Gavan Elver, and 

 the Buyan Eiyer. The most conspicuous mountain of the southern mass, and in fact 

 the highest on the island, is the one which I have named Mount Steller.^ It is 

 located just south of the low valley between Gladkbvskaya and Polavino, mentioned 

 above, and is particularly impressive and beautiful viewed from the latter place. 

 The mountains grow more forbidding and precipitous as the southern extremity of 

 the island, is approached, the last cape, a bold and knife-sharp promontory, the 

 Stotchnoi Mys, better known as Cape Manati, being particularly picturesque. 



The northern third of the island has an entirely different aspect from the remainder. 

 In a general way it may be described as being low, the highest elevation being but 

 slightly more than 600 feet. In reality it consists of a series of usually well-marked 

 terraces. First comes the present beach followed by a steep coast escarpment 

 averaging about 30 feet. In the deep bays this escarpment recedes inland so as to 

 inclose the lakes formed by the rise of the land, and the heaping up by the sea of 

 gravel and sand in front of them. Then follows a strip of varying width of nearly 

 level or gently sloping land to the base of an intermediate, often abrupt, terrace, which 

 brings us to an elevation of from 200 to 300 feet. The level following leads to the next 

 and last rise, which is the highest, but also usually the most gentle, though in some 

 places still quite precipitous. The level above this rise forms either large plateaus 

 with a somewhat undulating surface, or the tops of singularly regular, flat-topped 

 table mountains, which the natives, from their appearance suggesting overturned 

 boats, have given the graphic name of Lotka, or Baidara, mountains. There are two 

 groups of these table mountains, both very conspicuous when one approaches at sea 

 the main village, viz, the iSevernie Lotlci, two very regular and round tables, between 

 3 and 4 miles (nautical) north of Nikolski, and the Saramslde io^/a, three equally well- 

 marked, though less regular, mountains, about 5 miles distant to the northeast, on the 

 west side of the great Saranna Lake. The highest altitude of the former group I have 

 measured to be 577 feet; of the latter, 617 feet. The two main plateaus, which are 

 situated north of the great lakes, are the Northern Plateau between Cape Zapadnie 

 and Saranna, and TonJcoi Plateau from the latter place, where a deep cut, in which 

 flows the Saranna Eiver, separates the two plateaus, to East Tonkoi Mys, the Cape 

 Waxell of many charts. 



Between the terraced plateaus, which form the foothills and northern extension 

 of the mountainous southern portion of the island, and the two detached table-lands 

 named above, there is a depression extending across the island, which is filled by one 

 very large and a number of smaller lakes, as well as by extensive swamps. 



' Deutsche Geograph. Blatter, viii, 1885, p. 240. 



