New Britain herald., 1924-08-15
MANY EXPLORERS
 FAIL AT ISLANDS
K0nandorskics Have Proved
 Nemesis Oi AdVeNluPerS

Washington, D, C., Aug, is,--The kemandorskie Islands, near inc eoaft nf kamehalla, where q British air- plane, in an attempted ronnd-iher world flight recently crashed, "seem lated to he an island Nemesis for ek- plorers whether by air or water" re- marks q bulletin from ihe Washing ton, p C.. headquarters of inc Ma lional Geographic society, Il was on he largest oi these islande, the bul-
 elln recalls, that Vitns liering, who ,iseoRered Alaska for Russia, was shipwreeked and died while on his way back to Siberia with his import ani tldinga
 4 "pnstsuript" Of the Aieutians
 The islands are unqueslinnably | part Of Siberia politically" says a bull letn. hut they are physically the very tip of the Aleutian chain of Alaskan islands. The Aleulians sweep across the Pacific Tn huge crescent for some i,an0 miles, fencing m Ref- ing sen. As far as nomenclature goes they end with Attn, westernmost of the American Islands But 200 miles farther on the komandorskie group continues the curve perfectly, completing the island bridge between the Western and Eastern Hemis- rheraa,
 Geology too, proves the kinship Of the Asiatic and American islands. Both are of volcanic origin and ap- proyimately the same age, thrust up by the underground fires that still shoulder around Nit Katmai and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes on the Alaskan Peninsula, at one end Of the crescent, and in the numerous &C., tive craters of Kamchatka at the other.
 Eluded Early Explorers
 '"Through the Komandorske 1s- lands are barely 100 miles off Kam- chatka and straight westward from the mouth of the Kamchatka river from which the early Russian voy- ages started, they were not discov- cred apparently during the Is years from 172s to 1741 when Boring and his fellow navigators were cruising along the Asiatic coast and looking eastward for land. After Berling. in his Kamchatkan-bui ships, had found Alaska near Mt. St. Elias in 1741 and had worked his way back along the Aleutian chain, he sighted what is now Boring Island, largest of the Komanderskies, but thought it was the Kamchatkan mainland.
 Practically every one of BerinG's company of 50 or more was near death with scurvy. The ship could no longer be operated so was anchored, and the men moved ashore. Later a storm wrecked the vessel and in the following weeks Bering and many of his men died. After winter ing on the land which they found to be an island, the survivors built 36- foot boat from the shlp'swreckage and reached Kamchatka. Before leaving. the survivors christened the island komandorslSie or Commander Islands. The famous explorers grave is still to be seen on the island which bears his name.
 A Land of Bad Weather
 "The fog which put an end to Ma lor MacLaren's flight shrouded the komandorskies in Bering's day. The log of the survivors states that there was scarcely day of good weather during the ten months they were on Boring island. In the winter there were snow storms or winds so strong that a man could not stand in them When summer came the land was us- ually covered by fogs.
 The islands were not inhabited when Boring discovered them. A high lava ridge runs through Boring Is- land which is some 50 miles long. No trees grow save few stunted willows. Driftwood reaches the island, how ever, both from Asia and America.
 Orce Freguented By Sea Cows
 "The waters about the Komandor- skies became an important whaling | region in the early 18th gentry, and | at times as many as 400 whalers, 1 largely New Englanders. were in the Huge sea cows,' 2S to 30 feet long, frequented the islands. on the underwater forests of | algae off the coasts. , These huge creatures have been exterminated, as have most of the other sea mammals that visited the islands in early days.
 Through the Komandorskies are almost the most remote bit of Russian territory from Moscow. they are ap- parently firmly in the hands of the soviet republic. The American round, fhe- world flyers came near finding the islands an end of their voyage