Jon,

Thanx for the interesting posting. As a gatherer of lore about the
Aleutians and the Aleuts I'd have loved to go years ago to Kiska
Island. Now I'd not be able to climb about on Kiska volcano, which
would be strenuous stuff even without the wind, fog, and rain that is
pretty much the weather norm up there. The Aleuts themselves probably
climbed about the volcano rarely when they lived on Kiska, but the
Japanese troops who garrisoned Kiska in 1942-3 before the embarrassing
American invasion to liberate the island climbed up a couple of smaller
peaks to anchor the ends of a cable that was intended to keep American
warplanes from diving through the pass to bomb the Japanese base at
Kiska Harbor. It didn't help much, and the Japanese were forced to live
pretty much underground.

The birds are better off without the Aleuts, Japanese, and Americans,
and hopefully they have a decent relationship with the rats. Kiska is
part of the Rat Island group, which suggests the rats probably arrived
with the Russians in the 1740's, so whatever the relationship of rats
and alcids it's a long-standing one.

Paul Webster
PWebst25 at concentric.net