136 
DALL. 
surf vibrates to and fro amid outstanding pinnacles, where 
innumerable sea birds wheel and cry. The angular hills 
and long slopes of talus are not softened by any arborescent 
veil. The infrequent villages nestle behind sheltering bluffs, 
and are rarely visible from without the harbors. In winter 
all the heights are wrapped in snow, and storms of terrific 
violence drive commerce from the sea about them. 
Once pass within the harbors during summer and the repel¬ 
lent features of the landscape seem to vanish. The moun¬ 
tain sides are clothed with soft yet vivid green and brilliant 
with man} 7 flowers. The perfume of the spring blossoms is 
often heavy on the air. The lowlands are shoulder high with 
herbage, and the total absence of trees gives to the land¬ 
scape an individuality all its own. No more fascinating 
prospect do I know than a view of the harbor of Unalashka 
from a hilltop on a sunny day, with the curiously irregular, 
verdant islands set in a sea of celestial blue, the shorelines 
marked by creamy surf, the ravines by brooks and water¬ 
falls, the occasional depressions by small lakes shining in 
the sun. 
The sea abounds with fish; the offshore rocks are the re¬ 
sort of sea-lions and formerly of sea-otters; the streams afford 
the trout-fisher abundant sport, and about their mouths the 
red salmon leap and play. In October the hillsides offer 
store of berries, and in all this land there is not a poisonous 
reptile or dangerous wild animal of any sort. 
The inhabitants of these islands are an interesting and 
peculiar race. Their characteristics have been well de¬ 
scribed by Veniaminoff, who knew and loved them. By the 
testimony of their language, physique, and culture they are 
shown to be a branch of the Eskimo stock, driven from the 
continent, as the shell-heaps reveal, at a very ancient date 
and isolated since from contact with any other native race, 
specialized and developed by their peculiar environment to 
a remarkable degree. Conquered by the Russian hunters of 
the eighteenth century, practically enslaved for a century, 
their ancient religion frankly abandoned for the rites of the 
