The Aleutian Islands Encyclopedia Arctica 12: Alaska, Geography and General

The Aleutian Islands

Encyclopedia Arctica 12: Alaska, Geography and General

THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

The Aleutian Islands, on the northern rim of the Pacific

Ocean, hold the waters of Bering Sea within the sweep of their great

tectonic are much like a leaky basket holds water. The rugged shores

of this island chain, as well as the partially submerged pinnacles and

rocks are washed incessantly by the heavy seas of the surrounding ocean

as the erratic currents ebb and flow through the island passes. Baro–

metric pressure of the atmosphere, setting up gravity gradients in the

sea surface, has as much to do with the surface currents of this northern

ocean as do the gravitational pulls of the sun and the moon. Wind driven

currents set in motion by gales only complicate the complex hydrography

of the ocean and give rise to a system of ocean movement which defies

prediction. The islands are usually hidden from view in summer by banks

of advection fog, moving in from the Pacific, borne by the prevailing cir–

culation of air out of the North Pacific Anticyclone. Succeeding families

of cyclonic depressions plague the rest of the year with gales, snow

squalls, and wind chill. This is not a region of the world where naviga–

tion of the sea or air is made easy by a sympathetic natural regime.

Neither is it a place where the ordinary routine of day-to-day living can

be called comfortable for the small military population required to guard

this rampart of our northwestern approaches.

The islands are formed on an ancient rift in the earth’s crust

along which there has been extreme volcanic and seismic activity since

Tertiary Time. As an island chain there is a sag toward the 50th paral–

lel at about the 180th meridian. The east end of the catenary hangs from

the tip of the peninsula of Alaska at about 54°N and 164°N in the Fox

Islands while the west end is in the Near Islands at about 52°N and 174°
[
?]
.

These coordinates show the Aleutian Chain to be concave toward the Bering

Sea and, in effect to enclose it as a southern boundary. It extends from

east to west more than 900 miles and is broken into island groups which

002 | Vol_XII-0271
were named in sequence from the western extremity at Attu by the early

Russian fur men who accomplished their exploitation. Petropavlovsk, in

Kamchatka was the point of asiatic departure for most of these adventures.

They named the first point of arrival in the Aleutians, the islands in the

group associated with Attu, the Near Islands. East of the Near Islands

appear in order: the Rat Islands; the Delerof and the Andreanof Groups;

the Islands of Four Mountains; and, finally, the Fox Islands. The Sanak

Islands, and the Shumagin Islands belong to the chain geologically but these

groups are found today in the Gulf of Alaska. Events which transpired

during early Quaternary time caused a reorientation of the axis of the rift

along which the peninsula of Alaska was built, thus separating the last named

groups from contact with Bering Sea. These islands are now excluded geo–

graphically from being part of the Aleutian Chain. Politics, at the time

of the Alaska Purchase, excluded the Komandorski Group from the Aleutians.

They, however, are part of the chain in a geographical sense. The U. S.

Coast Guard in 1936 determined that a continuous submarine ridge extends

from Cape Wrangel, Attu, to Copper Island in the Komandorski Group, close

to the peninsula of Kamchatka.

Geology

: The geology of the Aleutian Islands, as partially in–

vestigated by S. R. Capps, G. D. Robinson, and others of the U. S. Geolo–

gical Survey, has been published in the official papers of that institution.

These reports are not very extensive because the Survey has had much more

important work to do elsewhere in Alaska. What is known reveals a complex

of quaternary, tertiary and perhaps elder volcanics and sediments thereof.

These igneous rocks and the intrusives which permeate them illustrate the

continuous plutonic character of the activity along the rift upon which the

Aleutian Chain has been constructed. The geomorphology of the islands has

both destructive and constructive elements in the landscapes which have re–

sulted. At some ancient time, a land mass is supposed to have protruded

from the sea south of the present site of the islands. Granitic glacial

erratics emanating from some source, now obscure, are found on recently

003 | Vol_XII-0272
emerged sub-aerial platforms in several places. This source of granite

is supposed by some to have subsided into the Aleutian Trench. The south–

ern exposures of the islands, and the islands definitely on the Pacific

side of the composite festoon of the islands, contain the oldest rocks and

sediments. These exposures contain the destructive forms of landscape as

well. The northern exposures of the festoon contain the recent rocks and

the active volcanoes. On these exposures are formed the constructive forms

of landscape. Some very ancient rocks are reported in the structure of the

Aleutians, even so. Attu may contain early tertiary coal measures. Ilak,

a tiny patch above the waves in the Delerofs, is reported to be a granitic

exposure.

Many of the older rocks bear the unmistakable signature of heavy

ice action. The U-shaped valleys carved by deep valley glaciers are com–

mon in the Fox Islands as well as at Attu. Many low flat-topped small is–

lands occur which are ancient sub-serial platforms. These islands contain

horisons of wave-worked granitic boulders now cemented into conglomerates

by recent eolian sediments composed of volcanic materials. These ancient

boulders are considered by some to have been glacier-borne to their present

sites. Ocean-borne ice of a colder period, has bevelled the fore shores of

many islands into steep gravel and boulder beaches. In places, these

beaches have been elevated into benches which carry the evidence of the old

shore lines.

The Environment

: The Aleutian environment is quite different

from most inhabited regions of the world. It is probably similar to Ice–

land and the Orkneys which, of course, have been occupied by enlightened

peoples since about the 10th century. The Aleutian Islands supported a

populous race of people, cousin of the

Esquimo

Eskimo

, at the time of their dis–

covery by the Russians. These Aleut native peoples were exploited by the

Russian fur traders during the 18th and 19th centuries. They were decimated

by disease brought to them by contact and exposure with the new arrivals.

004 | Vol_XII-0273
Against such disease they had no protective traditional immunity. They

were impressed into the Russian service as virtual slaves, as hunters

of the sea otters and other fur-bearing animals. In this pursuit, the

men were required to leave their home islands to accompany the fur-men;

even as far as lower California. During the absence of the men, the women,

the very old and the young died of starvation

exposure and disease. From ✓

a population of perhaps 40,000 natives in the beginning, a rapid decline to

the present has taken place. There are no pure blood Aleuts to be found

in the Islands now; only a few hundred mixed blood individuals remain who

have been assimilated under the flag of the United States into the few back–

ward communities on Unalaska, Umnak, Atka and Attu. These people are excel–

lent sailors and hunters but they have discarded most of their traditional

native crafts and techniques. It is safe to say that without the aid of

modern technology in boats, firearms, and foods, they would be quite unable

to return to their ancient mode of life and cope with the environment.

Climate

: The U. S. Coast Pilot states that “the weather of the

Aleutians is characterized by persistently overcast skies, high winds, and

violent storms. No other area in the world is recognized as having worse

weather in general than that which the Aleutian Islands experience. The

weather is extremely local, conditions of fog, low ceiling, and clear weather

often being encountered in a distance of 20 miles. Clear weather over large

areas is seldom encountered. It is an important characteristic of the weather

of the Aleutians that the northern shores of the islands have far better

weather generally and much less fog than the southern shores.” It is for

this last stated reason that the sailing directions prefer to route shipping

through Unimak Pass into the Bering Sea for passage along the Aleutians

rather than to recommend approaching the Islands from the Pacific side.

Mitigating circumstances in Aleutian navigation are that the harbors are

ice free; that the mean temperature of the sea is about 42°F, ranging be–

tween 37°F and 50°F during the year, and that, in spite of the somber m

n ✓

005 | Vol_XII-0274
of the weather, the annual precipitation in the form of rain and snow

,
✓

in no place

exceeds 50 inches of water a year. The temperature of the

air seldom, if ever, has been recorded as low as 0°F although the high

wind and the dampness contribute severe wind chill to the atmosphere through–

out the year.

The climate varies in different parts of the chain dependent

upon position. This is the result of the differing application of marine

and continental climatic influences. The Near Islands are influenced by

the close proximity of the continent of Asia; the Fox Islands are influenced

by the land mass of Alaska; the middle Islands of the Aleutians possess a

true marine climate. The maritime characteristics are absorbed by the air

masses

ffecting the middle islands, during the long fetch of the winds as ✓

they pass over the open oceans in their transport to these islands. These

maritime controls and continental controls alter the climate in the islands

from point to point during the same period of the year. The Near Islands

in May

are usually in the grip of winter, with snow cover to tide level,

while, at the same time, the Rat Islands, only two or three hundred miles

to the east, have become green with wild ry

and other grasses at sea level,

while the sedges and mosses have become exposed by the melting snows up to

500 feet of elevation or more. A generalization of the climate can be made

as follows: the climate is colder and more rigorous at the two ends of

the chain than it is in the middle of the chain. Higher latitude at the

two ends as well as the greater magnitude of continental influences is re–

sponsible for this. The center of the chain has a pure marine climate be–

cause of the preponderant maritime control which serves to contract the

annual range of temperature. On the other hand, the Pacific storms aris–

ing on the polar front usually existing south of the chain in winter are

of maximum intensity of nature development when they strike the middle

islands. This fact accounts for the high incidence of full gales in the

Andreanofs, the Delerofs, and the Islands of Four Mountains, making this

region one of the stormiest places in the world.

The mechanism of climate control in the Aleutians is most

easily comprehended from study of the behavior of the Pacific Anticyclone.

This great center of action fills the whole Pacific Basin during summer.

Its clockwise circulation of winds brings a relatively warm and humid

maritime air mass to high latitudes. This stream of air is cooled from

below as it passes over the cool ocean waters of the north Pacific and

takes on a stable stratification without marked vertical convection cur–

rents in its structure. As the cooling from below progresses with time,

the moisture brought from the tropics and additional moisture evaporated

from the sea surface in transit condenses into advection fog which hugs

the surface of the sea as it moves in the air stream. As the season of

summer advances, this fog gradually envelopes the Aleutians by streaming

through the passes between the islands and creeping ever higher over the

elevated shoulders of the islands. It enters

the

Bering Sea and is trans–

ported to the Arctic Ocean where it meets the Arctic Front forming a

bridge across

the

Bering Strait

. ✓

The Pacific Anticyclone contracts in winter and the major axis

of its field of pressure moves southward and the active zone of the Pacific

Polar Front disposes itself in a mean position immediately south of the

Aleutian Islands. Wave disturbances on the Pacific Polar Front in the

form of deep cyclonic depressions move eastward along the Aleutian chain.

Between these depressions, which appear as mature storms, there are

frequent outbreaks southward of masses of pure Arctic

ir; very cold and ✓

very dry. These masses are much colder than the underlying waters of Bering

Sea or the Pacific. This atmosphere absorbs heat and moisture from below

and develops unstable lapse rates of temperature in its vertical structure.

It has been asserted by the Norwegian School of meteorologists that the

surface layers of the Arctic Air Mass which plunges off the ice cap of

Greenland into the Straits of Denmark, during winter, adjusts itself to

within 1°C of the temperature of the surface of the underlying ocean within

twenty-four hours. It can be realized readily that convection activity

of large magnitude is essential to accomplish such a modification of tem–

perature; when the original temperature of the Arctic air as it arrives

007 | Vol_XII-0276
over open water, can conceivably be thirty to forty centigrade degrees lower

than the temperature of the sea. Much the same situation exists north and west

of the Aleutians; in that Siberia is a source region of Arctic air of similar

magnitude to Greenland. Manifestations of an air mass undergoing such rapid

modification are: unstable lapse rates of temperature, turbulence and gustiness.

These characteristics create the “williwaw” phenomena in the local weather of

western Alaska and the Aleutians. The winter regime in the Aleutians, in

consequence of migrating cyclonic depressions on the Pacific Polar Front

followed by cold outbreaks from behind the Arctic Front, becomes a sequence

of shifting gales, fluctuating barometers and

thermometers

temperatures. The cold out-

or barometric pressures and temperatures

breaks are characterized by short periods of clearing interrupted by the rapid

blanking out of horizontal and vertical visibility by snow squalls, carried

along on the gusty unstable currents out of the north or west.

The two transition periods between the winter and summer regimes

occur in May and in late September to early October. During these two periods

of the year, Aleutian weather can be mild and free of fog or storm. There is

no assurance that this will be the case but the highest probability for extended

Insert p 7

The Williwaw or Woollie

: As near as can be determined, the williwaw or

woollie is a phenomenon described in meteorology as the Katabatic or “fall”

wind. The fisherman, whalers, and inhabitants of Alaska generally, refer to

this wind as “the Woollies” when writing or conversing. The term “williwaw”

has crept into the scientific literature produced by recent writers and will

be continued in use here. The phenomenon is not unique

harbors of the Aleutian Islands as well as the iniets and embayments of the

Peninsula of Alaska. The lee sides of conical or rugged high islands and the

feet of precipitous slopes are also

ffected. The williwaw occurs usually with-

✓

in a cold unstable air mass such as the true Arctic Air mass following an out–

break from behind the Arctic Front. Any unstable air mass flowing with high

velocity across the chain is a potential source of williwaws in places where

“funnel” action of the air through a valley gorge or harbor can serve to rein–

force the natural flow of the gradient wind.

007 | Vol_XII-0277
over open water, can conceivably be thirty to forty centigrade degrees lower

than the temperature of the sea. Much the same situation exists north and west

of the Aleutians; in that Siberia is a source region of Arctic air of similar

✓

magnitude to Greenland. Manifestations of an air mass undergoing such rapid

modification are: unstable lapse rates of temperature, turbulence and gustiness.

These characteristics create the “williwaw” phenomena in the local weather of

western Alaska and the Aleutians. The winter regime in the Aleutians, in

consequence of migrating cyclonic depressions on the Pacific Polar Front

followed by cold outbreaks from behind the Arctic Front, becomes a sequence

of shifting gales, fluctuating barometers and

thermometers

temperatures. The cold out-

or barometric pressures and temperatures

breaks are characterized by short periods of clearing interrupted by the rapid

blanking out of horizontal and vertical visibility by snow squalls, carried

along on the gusty unstable currents out of the north or west.

The two transition periods between the winter and summer regimes

occur in May and in late September to early October. During these two periods

of the year, Aleutian weather can be mild and free of fog or storm. There is

no assurance that this will be the case but the highest probability for extended

periods of good weather in the islands exists during these transition periods.

The Williwaw:

As near as can be determined, the williwaw is a phenomenon

See Insert

described in meteorology as the katabatic wind or “fall” wind. It is not unique

to Alaska or the Aleutians, since it is described as occurring in the glacial

valleys of the Alps, in the Himalayas and in the

trait of Magellan. The willi-

✓

waw, however, can be particularly violent and destructive in the fiord-like

harbors of the Aleutian Islands as well as the inlets and embayments of the

Peninsula of Alaska. The lee sides of conical or rugged high islands and the

feet of precipitous slopes are also

ffected. The williwaw occurs usually with-

✓

in a cold unstable air mass such as the true Arctic Air mass following an out–

break from behind the Arctic Front. Any unstable air mass flowing with high

velocity across the chain is a potential source of williwaws in places where

“funnel” action of the air through a valley gorge or harbor can serve to rein–

force the natural flow of the gradient wind.

The nature of the williwaw can be described as an intermittent

blast of air sweeping through the atmosphere with hurricane force which in–

volves the underlying surface of the ground or sea with destructive violence.

The ultimate result of the mechanism of formation of the williwaw,

as described in the following paragraph,

is horizontal turbulence on a grand scale. The williwaw has been observed

to reverse its direction within a few seconds and blow with equal violence in

the opposite direction. Such winds cause ships at their moorings to break out

their anchors and drag. Winds of this nature are dangerous to aircraft while

taking off or landing, because flying speed is near the critical point of

stall at these times. Unquestionably many of the aircraft operational losses

during the Aleutian campaign of the war were attributable to the confused

velocity vectors of the atmosphere in situations which produced williwaws.

Many of the shipping losses at the advanced bases were ascribed to these vio–

lent winds.

The mechanism of the intermittency or reversal of the winds can be

visualized, if the air is considered to spill over the lip of a deep trough

from a series of different points, at different periods of time. The first

stream of air will descend to the bottom of the trough, strike the bottom,

whether it be a water surface or a valley bottom, and from this point of im–

pact, flow out at high velocity in all directions. The next stream of falling

air will descend from the lip of the trough at another point and time. It,

therefore, will have another point of impact at the bottom of the trough. At

a place midway between the two points of impact, the wind will reverse its

direction in a few seconds of time. If an airplane should become involved in

these descending jets of air, it can be realized that the wings may lose a

great part of their dynamic lift for short intervals as the vertical ac–

celerations on them change. At such an instant the plane may stall and spin.

Ships anchored to short scopes of chain to avoid yawing may very easily break

out their anchors, while those moored to piers may part their lines as they

surge against them.

The force of the wind at certain places in the Aleutians favorable

for the development of williwaws can be truly of hurricane strength. The

late Captain

Anderson

NELSON

of the motorship

”

Eunice

”

described such situations as,

✓

“She was yust a’shmokin’!.” The wind literally rips off the top layers of

009 | Vol_XII-0279
portions of the water area, depending upon where the individual gust strikes,

into a white sheet of driving spray which races through the area, blinds the

navigator as it swirls upward over the masthead, and adds to the confusion

attendant upon getting a vessel underway with the mooring tackle out and the

anchor foul. Harbors which are visited by these phenomena are Dutch Harbor,

✓

Kuluk Bay, and

Chichigof

Chicagof. Many anchorages which can be used under some situa-

ck sp

tions become untenable during others. The Bay of Islands

Adak

is one of

these. Glory of Russia Bay at the west end of Tanaga becomes particularly

bad during northeasterly weather.

Soils:

The natural soils of the Aleutian Islands are a function of the under–

lying solid geology, the scouring of these rocks during quaternary time by

glacial ice, the leeched sour top soil in many places produced by partially

decayed vegetable matter, and the extensive horizons of volcanic debris.

There has been little surface erosion of the islands since the ice disap–

peared. Evidence of frost action reigns supreme in the character of the soil

beginning at an elevation of 500 feet above the sea and extending upward.

The surfaces of the ridges and exposed shoulders of the higher elevations

consist of frost worked soils sometimes supporting islands of vegetation

but frequently carrying a polygonal grid or design. Between tide level and

this elevation, the soils merge from gravelly and sandy strands, through

peat-like accumulations of dark brown and black humus in depressions, to the

lighter soils composed of mixtures of humus and volcanic sands and fragments,

where the exposures are better drained. There is much true peat in the

Aleutians; particularly where shallow poorly drained ponds have been en-

✓

croached upon by the water-tolerant plants of the region.

A commentary upon the character of the Aleutian soils is that no

trees, except those planted by the hands of man, nor erect bushes are to be

found. There are two planted but underdeveloped stands of Sitka spruce on

islands in Unalaska harbor. It is assumed that the ice caps of the glacial

period denuded the islands of top soil and the trees have not yet become re–

established. Sitka spruce is indigenous to the northern end of Kodiak Island,

in the Gulf of Alaska, a
[
?]
this time. It is migrating toward the Aleutians

010 | Vol_XII-0280
at the rate of a mile per century. The Aleutian soils on the other hand, do

maintain a most prolific and lush population of mat-weaving woody and herbaceous

vegetation within the favorable zone between tide level and the active frost sone.

Biology

: The flora and fauna of the Aleutians have been beautifully and adequately

described by those few scientists who have displayed the intrepidity to visit them.

Prior to the thirties of this century, a journey to the islands under conditions

of creature comfort was extremely expensive and difficult to arrange. Eric Hultén,

the great Swedish botanist, was a visitor in 1932. He was transported to Unalaska

by the U.S. Coast Guard but owing to one of his honors, that of being an Honorary

Count of the Japanese Empire, accorded him for work done in Kamchatka many years

before, further government aid was denied him. He then was delayed for weeks while

he accumulated funds to finance his own voyage down the chain. The result of this

voyage, however, was a monograph on Aleutian flora which is a classic in the

scientific literature in this field. Isobel Hutchi

son, the British botanist,

✓

also visited in 1936. She was more fortunate in her dealings with the Coast Guard

and was transported in one of the comfortable cutters to several of the islands in

the chain. Her work has been published by Blackie and Son, Ltd. Collins, Clark

and Walker collaborated for the Smithsonian Institution, in 1945, in producing War

Background Study Number Twenty-One. This fine little volume on the people and

natural history of the Aleutians is without doubt the best presentation for the

layman to read. It contains keys for the identification of the birds and plants

as well as describing the land and sea invertebrates, the mammals and the fishes.

The book also contains a valuable bibliography.

No attempt will be made here to describe the biology as a whole

although mention will be made of those few individuals which have been observed

by the writer.

The presence of kelp in the waters surrounding the Aleutian Islands

is most characteristic and noticeable during the summer months. The kelp disap–

pears entirely in winter. At its maximum development the kelp is very heavy.

Individual kelp stems can attain lengths between 30 and 60 feet. It can be of

great aid to navigators as an indication of shoaling waters but cannot be relied

upon implicitely to mark shoals. If the current over the kelp bed exceeds two

or three knots at some stage of the tide, the kelp will be towed under the surface

011 | Vol_XII-0281
and will not show. Then again some shoals, consisting of loose boulders and

stones, probably are unstable and do not furnish suitable anchorage for the

individual stems of kelp

with the result that beds do not form to mark them.

Storms tear great masses of kelp from their anchorages at times but these masses

can be distinguished from anchored kelp. The drifting masses are made up of

tangled stems and fronds while anchored kelp, composing a bed, presents a

regular appearance of parallel stems laid out in the direction toward which

the current sets. Kelp beds are the habitat of many varieties of marine life

and are particularly favored now by the sea otter which are again becoming

numerous in several localities.

The fauna of the Aleutians has been studiously described but remains

a most fruitful field for the biologist. This writer can only say that the

marine life surrounding these islands is abundant beyond compare. This situa–

tion undoubtedly arises because of the convergence of ocean currents conducive

to the growth of vegetable and animal plankton in the sea. Brief studies of the

marine biology have been conducted by Thompson of the University of Washington

and certain of his group. The

”

Oglala

”

expedition of 1935 provided support for

✓

some of these during which the radiolaria were investigated and the bathymetric

data at some fifty stations were obtained. Unquestionably these waters supply

unlimited sustenance for many marine species. During the summer season of 1932,

at Kiska, schooling fish were observed in the waters surrounding this island

which literally filled the sea. The reported name of this fish was “Atka Macker

l”

yet it was not a species of macker

l. In regularity of size and in shape it re–

sembled a herring. Cod and

alibut were caught in large quantity from the

”

Gannet

”

whenever she anchored offshore. Whale and killer whale were present ✓

in numbers in many areas. The wave-washed offshore rocks were invariably covered

with herds of Steller sealions. Seals of several species, though not the fur

seal, were observed in Chichigof at Attu, Kiska Harbor, Nazan Bay and Unalaska.

The existence of sea otter in the waters surrounding Amchitka was officially

established by this writer in the

”

Oglala

”

expedition in 1935. This animal was ✓

the principal cause of the Russian exploitation of the Aleutians and Alaska during

012 | Vol_XII-0282
the 18th and 19th centuries. A rough estimate based on various sources, in–

cluding Bancroft, indicates that 3.000,000 sea otter skins were processed by

the Russian-American Company during its history. Many more skins were obtained

directly from the native hunters by illicit British and Yankee trading. There

is evidence that Barono

(q.v.)

traded illicitly with foreigners, in spite of his ✓

charter which forb

ade

this practice.

The principal food of the sea otter is the sea urchin. This animal

has a general distribution in the submerged littoral of the Aleutians. Tidal

pools and the bottoms of protected coves are solidly paved with these greenish

colored creatures. During times of need the Aleut natives depended upon the sea

urchin for food also;✓ as is indicated by the heavy horizons of crumbled sea ✓

urchin spines in their kitchen middens.

The Alaskan Brown Bear is found in only one island of the chain, that

being Unimak. It is believed that the Kodiak variety of the brown bear reached

Kodiak on the ice at the end of the Pleistocene. If such was the case, one

would expect to find bears in the Aleutians. The absence of these animals pro–

bably hinges on the lack of its principal food, the red salmon. Most of the

streams of the Aleutians are so short that the red salmon has not been able to

establish itself. A small run of these fish is known to occur nevertheless in

a stream draining into Chichigof Harbor, at Attu.

Foxes seem to be the one land mammal indigenous to the islands as a

whole. The species present is a mutation of the Arctic Fox known as the Blue

Fox. The Red Fox and its mutation, the Silver or Black Fox, have been intro–

duced by fur farmers. Invariably these latter animals destroy the blue fox popu–

lation of the same locality. They require artificial winter feeding as well.

The blue fox, on the other hand, can subsist himself in balance with his environ–

ment. The population level of blue foxes on any island may be raised by arti–

ficial feeding. For this reason, some fur farmers remain on their leases for

several winters in succession to husband their animals prior to a trapping

season. Fox fur is prime in December and is also much improved by artificial

feeding.

The method of feeding is quite simple

requiring only that the farmer

catch the bottom fish of the littoral and strew this along the beaches. As the

trapping season approaches, the farmer localizes the feeding place to the trap

pens. The foxes learn to frequent the trap pens at feeding time and it becomes

simple to take the desired number of pelts for the season. The blue fox is

naturally quite tame when he becomes familiar with kindly disposed people. He

can become a pest around a camp on shore because of the heavy acrid odor of his

eliminations and his natural curiosity concerning all phases of human activity.

The Aborigines

. The inhabitants of the Aleutians, when discovered by the Russian

adventurers, were a numerous full-valued people living in complete adjustment to

their rugged environment. They have been described through the years by the

literate observers of their exploitation, their decline and ultimate near-extinc–

tion. The words of Steller (1741), Tolstykh (1761), Korovin (1763), Solvief

(1764), Levashef (1768), can be found in English as written by Coxe (1780),

Bancroft (1886), Golder (1922), and Jochelson (1933). Many other full descrip–

tions are to be found, covering later time, in the works of Cook, Sarichef, Sauer,

Davidof, Lisianski, Langsdorf, Veniaminof, Dall, and Petroff. Dall, Jochelson

and Hardlicka have described the village life and the village architecture.

This writer will not attempt to transcribe the work of any early ob–

server. The few mixed-blood remnants of these aboriginal people presumably

are to be found now in several small villages in the eastern and central islands.

They were evacuated during the war; except those in the village at Chicagof, on ✓

Attu. These people became prisoners of war.

The modern Aleut is an excellent sailor, hunter, and fisherman. The

women excel at needlecraft. The art of their delicate and exquisite basketry,

for which they were famed, is probably now lost since the young woman resist

learning the intricacies of the weave. The native bidarka, similar to the

Esquimo

Eskimo

ayak, does not survive. The large skin boat, similar to the umiak, ✓

is gone also. These have been replaced by dories, with outboard engines, sup–

plied by the traders;✓ at great personal profit to themselves in terms of fox ✓

skins. The old sod houses or barabaras, built partially underground, have given

014 | Vol_XII-0284
way to modern construction frame houses; stuffy and odorous, thanks to stove

oil heaters, drying raiment and the tin bucket for the collection of urine.

Urine remains the universal chemical for tanning hides, medicament for burns,

wounds and colds, and the curing solution for the flexible fibers used in

basket weaving. The modern Aleut prefers canned salmon to fresh because of

the salt content of the former. He will go to reduced rations in the presence

of 10,000 reindeer at Atka rather than venture inland to hunt them, preferring

to require the U. S. Coast Guard to provide sea lion meat from distant Bogoslof

Island. These anom

lies and others serve to show that the infiltration of mus–

covite blood into the Aleut veins has served to bewilder and confuse a primitive

issue. This merger of genes seems to indicate the imminent extinction of a de–

cadent minority. This people is unwilling to compete on terms of parity with

the West, yet this people once was supremely competent to battle an environment

which has not been met adequately by the civilized invader.