ed above raise themselves here and there. The vegetation
on this little island unites a very uncommon poverty in
species with a high degree of luxuriance.

"Of the higher animals we saw only four kinds of birds, viz
_Fratercula cirrhata_, a black guillemot (_Una grylle_ var.
_columba_), a species of cormorant (Phalocrocorax) and a
sort of gull (Larus). _Fratercula cirrhata_ lived here by
millions. They haunted the upper plain, where they had
everywhere excavated short, deep, and uncommonly broad
passages to sleep in, provided with two openings. From
these on our arrival they flew in large flocks to the
neighbouring sea and back. Their number was nearly equal to
that of looms in the Arctic loomeries. The black guillemots
and cormorants kept to the cliffs near the shore.

"The number of the evertebrate land animals amounted to
about thirty species. The most numerous were Machilis,
Vitrina, Lithobius, Talitrus, some Diptera and beetles.
They all lived on the inner belt of the shore, where the
ground was uncommonly damp."

Behring Island might without difficulty feed large herds of cattle,
perhaps as numerous as the herds of sea-cows that formerly pastured
on its shores. The sea-cow besides had chosen its pasture with
discrimination, the sea there being, according to Dr. Kjellman, one
of the richest in algae in the world. The sea-bottom is covered at
favourably situated places by forests of seaweed from twenty to
thirty metres high, which are so dense that the dredge could with
difficulty force its way down into them, a circumstance which was
much against the dredging. Certain of the algae are used by the
natives as food.

In the course of our journey to the hunting place we had an
opportunity, during a rest about halfway between it and the village,
of taking part in a very peculiar sort of fishing. The place where
we rested was in an even grassy plain, resembling a natural meadow
at home, crossed by a large number of small rivulets. They abounded
in several different kinds of fish, among them a Coregonus, a small
trout, a middle-sized long salmon with almost white flesh, though
the colour of its skin was a purplish-red, another salmon of about
the same length, but thick and hump-backed. These fish were easily
caught. They were taken with the hand, were harpooned with common
unshod sticks, were stabbed with knives, caught with the insect net,
&c.