The Alaskan flora is less varied than the fauna.
Commencing in the Arctic region, the Eskimo in his kayak, consisting of a framework of driftwood or bone covered with dressed sealskin, could paddle down east Greenland, up the west shore to Smith Sound, along Baffin Land and Labrador, and the shores of Hudson Bay throughout insular Canada and the Alaskan coast, around to Mount St Elias, and for many miles on the eastern shore of Asia.
These differences have given rise to a supposed multiplicity of species, expressed by the names C. lycaon (Central Europe), C. laniger and C. niger (Tibet), the C. occidentalis, C. nubilus, C. mexicanus, &c., of North America, and the great blackish-brown Alaskan C. pambasileus, the largest of them all.
In 1731 the navigator Michael Gvosdev was driven by storm from a point north of Cape Dezhnev to within sight of the Alaskan coast, which he followed for two days.
Under Bering on his last voyage (x741) was Commander Chirikov of the "St Paul," and after being separated from his leader during foggy weather this officer reached the Alaskan coast and explored a considerable stretch of it.
