On the northern
side of the Aleutian islands are found cocoanut husks and other tropical
productions stranded along the beaches. The American coast of Alaska
has a much warmer climate than the Asiatic coast of Siberia, and the
American timber line extends very far north. The ice opens early in the
season on the American side, and invariably late on the Asiatic.
Capt. C. L. Hooper says that when just north of Behring's Strait, off
the American coast, in the Arctic basin, the U.S. steamer Thomas Corwin,
when becalmed for 24 hours, drifted 40 miles to the northward. From
all these, and other facts, and the unanimous testimony of American
whalemen, who have for years spent many months annually in the Arctic,
and from his own observations, he argued that a branch of the Kuro-Shiwo
or Japanese warm stream, unquestionably runs northward through Behring's
Strait into the Arctic basin along the northwestern coast of Alaska.
Prof. Davidson then called to mind the testimony in regard to the
existence of Plover Island, between Herald Island and Wrangell Land,
which he said was first made public through this academy. The evidence
of Capts. Williams and Thomas Long were recited and highly praised. One
of the officers of Admiral Rodgers' expedition climbed to near the top
of Herald Island, at a time of great refraction, when probably a false
horizon existed, and hence did not see Plover Island, although Wrangell
Land was in sight.
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