University of California Publications. 



[Geology 



GEOGRAPHY. s 



The continents of Asia and North America lie in closest 

 proximity to each other in latitude 65° north. Bering Strait, 

 the body of water separating them, is fifty miles wide in its 

 narrowest portion. Cape Prince of Wales in longitude 168° 

 west forms the extreme western projection of North America ; 

 opposing it on the Asiatic side is the bold promontory of East 

 Cape, the extreme eastern projection of Chukchi Peninsula. 

 Lying approximately midway between these two headlands are 

 the Diomede Islands, the larger of which, known as the Big 

 Diomede, belongs to Russia, and the smaller, the Little Diomede, 

 belongs to the United States. The islet called Fairway Rock 

 lies a few miles to the southeast of the Diomedes. 



Seward Peninsula is bounded on the north by Kotzebue 

 Sound and the Arctic Ocean and on the south by Bering Sea 

 and Norton Sound. It embraces an area of approximately 20,000 

 square miles, which is included mainly between meridians 161° 

 and 168° west longitude and parallels 6-1° and 66y2° north 

 latitude. 



As shown on the Coast and Geodetic Survey Chart, the 100- 

 fathom line of Bering Sea starts at Unimak Island, the Aleutian 

 Island lying at the southwest extremity of the Alaska Peninsula, 

 and trends northwest to Cape Navarin on the Siberian Coast. 

 North of this line Bering Sea is characterized by extreme shal- 

 lowness, barely averaging 200 feet in depth, whereas to the south 

 it abruptly attains a depth of 12,000 feet. The extreme shal- 

 lowness persists through Bering Strait and prevails over a large 

 portion of the Polar Sea lying to the north. It is to be noted 

 of the Aleutians, which are held to mark off Bering Sea from 

 the Pacific Ocean, that the westernmost islands rise directly 

 from oceanic depths. In some speculations they are regarded 

 as having afforded a bridge between Asia and America at some 

 time in the past. 



a The geographic relations including soundings of Bering Sea are best 

 shown on Chart T, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



