Sledge Island

Location map
Alaska
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Sledge Island, or Ayak Island, is a small island in the Bering Sea. It is located 8.5 km from the southwestern shore of the Seward Peninsula, off the shores of Alaska.

Sledge island is of volcanic origin and is only 2.6 km across. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-5422(195201%2F02)54%3A1%3C51%3ANOTBOS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P] The highest point is 11 m. Administratively this island belongs to the Nome Census Area, Alaska.

This island was named on August 5, 1778, by Captain James Cook (1785, v. 2, p. 441), RN, who commented: "We found, a little way from the shore where we landed, a sledge, which occasioned this name being given to the island." Martin Sauer, the secretary of the 1791 Russian expedition who sailed under orders from Catherine II of Russia, claimed in 1802 that the Inuit name of this island is "Ayak."

Captain Frederick Beechey (1831, p. 291-292), RN, observed: "It is singular that this island, which was named Sledge Island by Captain Cook, from the circumstances of one of these implements being found upon it, should be called by a word signifying the same thing in Esquimaux language."

The island is part of the Bering Sea unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

References

External links

* [http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=108:3:15845223094965297813::NO::P3_FID:1409744 USGS-GNIS]
* [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v054n01/p0051-p0054.pdf Birdlife]
* [http://www.tomsnome.com/sledge.jpgPicture of the island from the air]
* [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/voyages/exped.htm Martin Sauer's voyages]