268 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



AN ALEUT. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



BERING SEA— THE RUSSIAN FUR COMPANY— THE ALEUTS. 



Bering Sea. — Unalaska. — The Pribilow Islands. — St. Matthew.— St. Laurence.— Bering's Straits.— The 

 Russian Fur Company. — The Aleuts. — Their Character. — Their Skill and Intrepidity in hunting the 

 Sea-otter. — The Sea-bear. — Whale-chasing. — Walrus-slaughter. — The Sea-lion. 



T3ERING SEA is extremely interesting in a geographical point of view, as 

 -'-^ the temperature of its coasts and islands exhibits so striking a contrast 

 with that part of the Arctic Ocean which extends between Greenland, Iceland, 

 Norway, and Spitzbergen, and affords us the most convincing proof of the 

 benefits we owe to the Gulf Stream, and to the mild south-westerly winds 

 which sweep across the Atlantic. While through the sea between Iceland 

 and Scotland, a part of the warmth generated in the tropical zone penetrates 

 by means of marine and aerial currents as far as Spitzbergen and the western 

 coast of Nova Zembla, the Sea of Bering is completely deprived of this advan- 

 tage. The long chain of mountainous islands which bounds it on the south 

 serves as a barrier against the mild influence of the Pacific, and instead of 

 warm streams mixing with its waters, many considerable rivers and deep bays 

 yearly discharge into it enormous masses of ice. Thus as soon as the naviga- 

 tor enters Bering Sea he perceives at once a considerable fall in the tempera- 

 ture, and finds himself suddenly transferred from a temperate oceanic region 

 to one of a decidedly Arctic character. In spite, therefore, of their compara- 

 tively southerly position (for the Straits of Bering do not even reach the Arc- 

 tic Circle, and the Andrianow Islands are ten degrees farther to the south than 



