26 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
mental jilant of this formation is Empetrum nigrum, richly interspersed with Loiseleuria 
proGuinhens, Cassioi)e Jycopodoides and other ericaceous plants, chiefly Bryanthus, and 
in the lower portions Rhododendron chrysantlmm. Where the ground is marshy the 
salmon berry, Rub us chanmmor us, is rather common. Higher up on the mountain 
sides the vegetation grows more and more scanty and alpine in character. 
The pelagic Jiora. around Bering Island has been studied by Dr. F. R. Kjellman 
(Kgl. Sveuska Vetensk. Akad. Handling., (n. s.), xxiii, 1889, No. 8, 58 pp., 7 pis), who 
observes that at Bering Island all conditions are found favorable to the development 
of a rich flora of algee of the pelagic type. “ It may even be said with safety that there 
are but few parts of the ocean the flora of which exceeds or even approaches that 
around Bering Island, in so far as multitude of individuals or number of magniflcent 
forms are concerned.” 
NATIVE POPULATION OF THE COMMANDER ISLANDS. 
The Commander Islands, when discovered in 1741, were uninhabited, and no trace 
of any former population has been found. For over 80 years the islands remained 
without a regular population, although they were visited almost yearly uxi to the end of 
the eighteeuth century by numerous parties of Russian fur-hunters, or promyshleniks, 
as they are called. In the early days it was the custom of these hardy frontiersmen to 
pass the first winter on Bering Island in order to secure provisions of sea-cow meat for 
their further expeditions. Sometimes the crews of several vessels wintered there at 
the same time, in one year at least (1754-55) numbering over 100 men. Those were 
gay days on Bering Island, when the sea cow, the sea-otter, the blue fox, and the fur- 
seal were still x)lentiful. But these jirecious animals were soon exterminated, literally, 
as the sea-cow, or commercially, as the three other sjiecies, and the inhospitable and 
dangerous shores of the Commander Islands were but seldom visited by sailors or 
hunters. 
When the colonial district of Atkha was established by the Russian-American 
Comx)any, in 1826, it was deci<led to locate a number of natives from the other 
Aleutian Islands, and consequently two colonies of Aleuts and half-breeds, the 
offspring of Russian xiromyshleuiks and Aleut women, were iilanted on Bering and 
Coiiper islands. A similar colony, located on the Kuril Islands, was made uxi mostly 
from natives of the Kadiak district. The colony of Bering Island consisted chiefly of 
natives of Atkha Island, or the Andreauovski grouji, in general, while the Copper 
islanders were made u}) mostly of men and women from Attn. Although the inhabi- 
tants of the two islands by transfer and intermarriage have become considerably mixed 
of late, yet the difference in origin is still traceable in the dialects spoken, the Atkha 
jieople still itre]>onderating on Bering Island, the Attu islanders on Copper Island. 
Of late years two other elements have been added to the native iiopulation. As 
noted above, the Russian- American Comiiany had located a colony of natives, mostly 
from the Kadiak district, on the Kuril Islands. When the latter islands were ceded 
to Japan these natives and their offspring declared their intention of remaining Rus- 
sian subjects and were transferred to Kamchatka. After a miserable existence for 
several years in a small village outside of Petropaulski, they were located on the east 
coast near Ca^ie Lopatka, in order to hunt sea-otters. Their village was situated in a 
