. Alaska ... Natural history; Scientific expeditions. HALL ISLAND 109 on our way up and which we now found late in the after- noon of the next day. Our first stop was at Hall Island, which once probably formed a part of St. Matthew, but is now separated from it by only a narrow strait. This was our first visit to uninhabited land, and to a land of such unique grace and beauty that the impression it made can never be forgotten — a thick carpet of moss and many-col- ored flowers covering an open smooth undulating country that faced the sea in dark basaltic cliffs, some of them a thousand feet hi
. Alaska ... Natural history; Scientific expeditions. HALL ISLAND 109 on our way up and which we now found late in the after- noon of the next day. Our first stop was at Hall Island, which once probably formed a part of St. Matthew, but is now separated from it by only a narrow strait. This was our first visit to uninhabited land, and to a land of such unique grace and beauty that the impression it made can never be forgotten — a thick carpet of moss and many-col- ored flowers covering an open smooth undulating country that faced the sea in dark basaltic cliffs, some of them a thousand feet high. The first thing that attracted our at- tention was the murres—' arries ' the Aleuts call them — about their rookeries on the cliffs. Their numbers dark- ened the air. As we ap- . proached, the faces of the : rocks seemed paved with ^ them, with a sprinkling of S gulls, puffins, black cormor- rl ants and auklets. On landing "*- at a break in the cliffs where a rookery rock, off hall island, little creek came down to the BERING SEA' sea, our first impulse was to walk along the brink and look down upon the murres and see them swarm out beneath our feet. On the discharge of a gun the air would be black with them, while the cliffs apparently remained as populous as ever. They sat on little shelves or niches with their black backs to the sea, each bird covering one egg with its tail feathers. In places one could have reached down and seized them by the neck, they were so tame and so near the top of the rocks. I believe one of our party did actually thus procure a specimen. It was a strange spectacle and we lingered long looking upon it. To behold sea fowls like flies in uncounted millions, was a new experi- ence. Everywhere in Bering Sea the murres swarm like vermin. It seems as if there was a murre to every square. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of t
Size: 1779px × 1404px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectnatural, bookyear1901
