178 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
spur, and in the vicinity of the larger rivers, where the peninsula expands to a 
width of from 60 to 90 miles, the mountains in the distance are visible only on a clear 
day. Along this shore there is an occasional high bluff which marks the sea terminus 
of a ridge of hills. 
From the western shore to the mountains the country is a gradually ascending, 
rolling plain, hillocky in places, dotted with lakes fed by the glaciers and melting 
snows in the east, with much marshy tundra cut up by streams and mud sloughs. 
It is on this western watershed of the Alaska Peninsula that the large lakes, 
Ugashik, Becharof, llliak, Naknek, and, on the northern extension, lliamna and 
Clark, are situated. These form the sources of the rivers on which the salmon 
fisheries in Bristol Ba} 7 are located. 
Referring to the topographical features of the Bering Sea district, the Russian 
missionary, Veniaminof, says: 
Slight elevations can be found along the whole extent of the American coast of Bering Sea; they 
are in nearly all cases connected with the mountains in the interior. If the observer ascends to a 
height the country appears to him like a heaving ocean suddenly become stationary, with its waves 
transformed into sand and mud; these waves are now covered with vegetation, but their outlines are 
still very striking. In the midst of this dry sea we find occasionally high, rocky islands entirely 
separate< 1 from the neighboring hills. 
Of the interior of this country no exact information is at hand, and it still awaits 
the intelligent explorer. But little information can be obtained from the natives, 
and not much more from the prospector who occasionally finds his wa} r into the 
interior, or the worthless squaw man, who at times is infused with sufficient energy 
to look for game. 
The population is not large and consists of Innuits or Eskimos, who live in small 
villages located on high ground, on hills or bluffs bordering a river or lake. They 
subsist by hunting and fishing, and, when located near a cannery, earn good wages, 
if they desire to work. Their food is largely salmon, though seal, beluga, and walrus 
also enter their diet when they can be obtained, and occasionally a deer or moose is 
taken. Their food is all preferred “high” — not high in the sense of the epicure, but 
rotten; rancid oil is generally cooked with it or used for sauce. The decaying carcass 
of a whale cast on the beach attracts the natives for many miles, and a grand feast is held 
over it; rotten salmon heads are a bonne bouche. They are very filthy in their habits 
and live in very primitive dwellings, made by forming a shallow circular excavation 
and erecting over it a framework of driftwood, or whale ribs, with double walls 
filled with earth and stones and covered over with sod. A small aperture is left in 
the apex for the escape of smoke, though many of their dwellings now have side 
openings with a small window. The outside, or the roof, as it were (for all above 
ground is rounded in shape), is a gathering place for children and dogs, and is sur- 
rounded by mud and offal. The entrance is a low square hole, to enter through 
which one must stoop very low, or crawl, and then pass through a gallery or tunnel 
into the inner chamber, which is irregular in shape and from 10 to 15 feet in diameter. 
In the center, and under the smoke opening, is the fireplace, and along the walls 
are couches of skins or mats slightly elevated above the floor; frequently there are 
several of these dwellings connected by tunnels, all having one common entrance. 
Storehouses are built on driftwood posts 4 or 5 feet from the ground; in these the 
