nvirons of the Awatscha, yet possesses a
richer in sect Fauna, as the climate there is much milder, and adapted
to agriculture.

From Kamtschatka our course lay mostly eastward. At first the sea was
strongly luminous every night; but when in the midst of this immense
ocean, it one night happened, that while the ship was as usual
surrounded by brilliant waves, a dark precipice seemed to open before
it. On reaching this part of the water, it appeared that all the
luminous matters, such as Zoophytes and Mollusca with their spawn, were
entirely wanting, and from this point to the American coast the sea
remained dark.

We remarked generally of this great ocean, that on the Asiatic coast,
even at a considerable distance from land, (as much as thirty degrees
west from Japan,) the water is always muddy; it is made so, partly by
the great numbers of small Crustacea, Zoophytes, and Mollusca, partly by
the impurities of the whales and dolphins, which latter especially, as
well as many other kinds of fish, are very numerous here from the
abundance of food to be found. On the contrary, the sea in the
neighbourhood of the north-west coast of America is clear and
transparent, and nothing is found in it except here and there a single
Medusa.

In the principal settlement of the Russian-American Trading Company on
the island of Sitcha, in Norfolk Sound, we had better opportunities of
becoming acquainted with natural productions than elsewhere, as, during
our stay there, in the year 1825, from March to the middle of August, we
had an almost uninterrupted continuation of fine weather: we were in
this respect peculiarly favoured, as in most years this island does not
enjoy above one fine day to fourteen cloudy or wet ones. We ourselves
experienced this sort of weather in 1824, when we passed the latter part
of August and the beginning of September there.

Of the Fauna of this island, about two hundred and sixty species came
under our notice: from its immediate vicinity to the continent, it is
not wonderful that several large _mammalia_ are to be found. Among these
is the _Ursus Americanus_, of the black race; a fox; a stag, which
perhaps does not differ from the _Cervus virginianus_, and the common
beaver, which feeds on the large leaves of a _Pothos_, said by the
inhabitants to be injurious to man. Besides these are observed a small
_Vespertilio_ with short ears, a _Mustela_, and a _Phoca_.

Of birds we remarked: the _Aquila leucocep