Fox Islands (Alaska)
The Fox Islands are a group of islands in the eastern Aleutian Islands of the U.S. state of Alaska. The Fox Islands are the closest to mainland North America in the Aleutian chain, and just east of Samalga Pass and the Islands of Four Mountains group.
Inhabited by the Aleut for centuries, the islands, along with the rest of the Aleutians, were first visited by Europeans in 1741, when a Danish navigator employed by the Russian navy, Vitus Bering, was searching for new sources of fur for Russian fur trappers.
Foggy almost all year round, the islands are difficult to navigate due to constantly adverse weather and numerous reefs. As with the other Aleutian islands, the Fox Islands are prone to frequent earthquakes year-round.
The larger Fox Islands are, from west to east, Umnak, Unalaska, Amaknak, Akutan, Akun, Unimak and Sanak. Islands lying west of Akutan are in the Aleutians West Census Area. From Akutan eastward they are in the Aleutians East Borough.
Fox Islands is the English translation of the name given to the islands in the 18th century by Russian explorers and fur traders.
Read more about Fox Islands (Alaska): In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words fox and/or islands:
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And therto brood, as though it were a spade.
Upon the cop right of his nose he hade
A werte, and theron stood a toft of herys
Reed as the brustles of a sowes erys.
His nosethirles blake were and wyde.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)